Author: Alex McDonald

Your IoT Questions Answered

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The SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative (CSTI) webcast on IoT explored how the explosion of data generated from IoT devices creates unique challenges in the way we store, transmit and curate data. If you missed the webcast, you can watch it on-demand. This topic generated several interesting questions.  As promised during the live event, here are answers to them all:

Q. Do IoT devices consume as much data as they produce?

A. It really depends on the device. There are some like sensors that will only produce data and transmit it on, on the other hand the more intelligence built into these devices the more need there might be to consume data to drive that intelligence. In the future, it’s possible there will be much more device to device (or peer to peer) traffic between IoT devices, cutting out the leg back to the data center altogether for data that doesn’t need to be there.

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The Challenges IoT Brings to Storage and Data Strategy

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Data generated from the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing exponentially. More and more we are seeing compute and inference move to the edge. This is driven by the growth in capability to not only generate data from sensors, devices, and by people operating in the field, but also by the interaction between those devices.

This new source of IoT data and information brings with it unique challenges to the way we store and transmit data as well as the way we need to curate it. It’s the topic the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative will tackle at our live webcast on May 14, 2020, The influence of IoT on Data Strategy. In this webcast we will look at:

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How AI Impacts Storage and IT

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Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have had quite the impact on most industries in the last couple of years, but what about the effect on our own IT industry? On April 1, 2020, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative will host a live webcast, “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Storage and IT, where our experts will explore how AI is changing the nature of applications, the shape of the data center, and its demands on storage. Learn how the rise of ML can develop new insights and capabilities for IT operations. In this webcast, we will explore: Read More

Pay Attention to These Cloud Standards

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What’s going on in the world of cloud standards? Since the initial publication of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition of cloud computing in NIST SP 800-145 in 2011, international standards development organizations (SDOs) have sought to refine and expand the cloud computing landscape. On February 13, 2020 at our next live SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative webcast “Cloud Standards: What They Are, Why You Should Care” we will dive into the cloud standards worth noting as Eric Hibbard, standards expert and ISO editor, will discuss:

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Composable Infrastructure Q&A

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On February 13, 2019, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative (CSTI) presented a live webcast, Why Composable Infrastructure? Our goal was to clearly explain the reasoning behind, and the benefits of, composable infrastructure in an educational, vendor-neutral way. We believe our speakers, Philip Kufeldt and Mike Jochimsen, did just that. Now, as promised, Philip and Mike have answered the many interesting questions we received during the live event.

Q. Are composable infrastructure solutions incompatible with virtualized or containerized environments? Will these solutions only serve bare metal environments?

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Got Questions on Container Storage? We’ve Got Answers!

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Keeping up with changes in the world of container storage is not easy. That’s why the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative invited expert Keith Hudgins of Docker for a live webcast, “What’s New in Container Storage.” I encourage you to watch it on-demand. It’s well worth the approximately half-hour investment to get up to speed on container storage.

As promised during the live event, here are answers to the questions we received:

Q. How does the new Container Storage Interface fit in here? Read More

Wondering What’s New in Container Storage?

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The landscape of containers is moving fast and constantly changing, with new standards emerging every few months. If you wondering what’s new in container storage, you are not alone. That’s why the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative is hosting a live webcast on February 26, 2019, “What’s New in Container Storage.”

In this webcast, Keith Hudgins of Docker joins us as a follow up to his earlier container webcast “Intro to Containers, Container Storage and Docker.” It’s our most popular webcast to date with thousands of views. If you missed it, it’s available on demand and will provide you with some great background information before our February 26h webcast.

I encourage you to register today for the February 26th session where you’ll learn:

  • What’s new, what to pay attention to, and how to make sense of the ever-shifting container landscape.
  • Container storage types and Container Frameworks
  • An overview of the various storage APIs for the container landscape
  • How to identify the most important projects to follow in the container world
  • The Container Storage Interface spec and Kubernetes 1.13
  • How to get involved in the container community

It will be live, so bring your questions!

Understanding Composable Infrastructure

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Cloud data centers are by definition very dynamic. The need for infrastructure availability in the right place at the right time for the right use case is not as predictable, nor as static, as it has been in traditional data centers. These cloud data centers need to rapidly construct virtual pools of compute, network and storage based on the needs of particular customers or applications, then have those resources dynamically and automatically flex as needs change.

To accomplish this, many in the industry espouse composable infrastructure capabilities, which rely on heterogeneous resources with specific capabilities that can be discovered, managed, and automatically provisioned and re-provisioned through data center orchestration tools. The primary benefit of composable infrastructure results in a smaller grained sets of resources that are independently scalable and can be brought together as required. On February 13, 2019, The SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative is going to examine what’s happening with composable infrastructure in our live webcast, Why Composable Infrastructure? In this webcast, SNIA experts will discuss:

What prompted the development of composable infrastructure?

  • What is composable infrastructure?
  • What are the enabling technologies and potential solutions
  • Enabling technologies (not just what’s here, but what’s needed…)
  • An update on the current status of composable infrastructure standards/products, and where we might be in two to five years

Our goal is to clearly explain the reasoning behind and the benefits of composable infrastructure in an educational, vendor-neutral way. We hope you’ll join us. Our experts will be on hand to answer your questions. Register today to save your spot.

What the “T” Means in SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies

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The SNIA Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI) has had a rebrand; we’ve added a T for Technologies into our name, and we’re now officially the Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative (CSTI).

That doesn’t seem like a significant change, but there’s a good reason. Our old name reflected the push to getting acceptance of cloud storage, and that specific cloud storage debate has been won, and big time. One relatively small cloud service provider is currently storing 400PB of clients’ data. Twitter alone consumes 300PB of data on Google’s cloud offering. Facebook, Amazon, AliBaba, Tencent – all have huge data storage numbers.

Enterprises of every size are storing data in the cloud. That’s why we added the word “technologies.” The expanded charter and new name reflect the need to support the evolving cloud business models and architectures such as OpenStack, software defined storage, Kubernetes and object storage. It includes data services, orchestration and management, understanding hyperscale requirements and the role standards play.

So what do we do? The CSTI is an active group that publishes articles and white papers, speaks at industry conferences and presents at highly-rated webcasts that have been viewed by thousands. You can learn more about the CSTI and check out the Infographic for highlights on cloud storage trends and CSTI activities.

If you’re interested in cloud storage technologies, I encourage you to consider joining our group. We have multiple membership options for established vendors, startups, educational institutions, even individuals. Learn more about CSTI membership here.

Simplifying the Movement of Data from Cloud to Cloud

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We are increasingly living in a multi-cloud world, with potentially multiple private, public and hybrid cloud implementations supporting a single enterprise. Organizations want to leverage the agility of public cloud resources to run existing workloads without having to re-plumb or re-architect them and their processes. In many cases, applications and data have been moved individually to the public cloud. Over time, some applications and data might need to be moved back on premises, or moved partially or entirely, from one cloud to another.

That means simplifying the movement of data from cloud to cloud. Data movement and data liberation – the seamless transfer of data from one cloud to another – has become a major requirement.

On August 7, 2018, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative will tackle this issue in a live webcast, “Cloud Mobility and Data Movement.” We will explore some of these data movement and mobility issues and include real-world examples from the University of Michigan. We’ll discus:

  • How do we secure data both at-rest and in-transit?
  • What are the steps that can be followed to import data securely? What cloud processes and interfaces should we use to make data movement easier?
  • How should we organize our data to simplify its mobility? Should we use block, file or object technologies?
  • Should the application of the data influence how (and even if) we move the data?
  • How can data in the cloud be leveraged for multiple use cases?

Register now for this live webcast. Our SNIA experts will be on-hand to answer you questions.

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