Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links F to J

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links F to J

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links F to J to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • f5.com    Networking solutions
  • fabric7.com    High speed networking
  • falconstor.com    Storage management software
  • FarStone.com    Backup and data protection software
  • fcoe.com    Web site pertaining to Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
  • fdr.com    Aka Innovation data protection tools
  • fedoraproject.org    Linux based operating system
  • Fiber Internet Center    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • FiberLight    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • fibrechannel.org    Fibre Channel Trade Group
  • filenet.com    File Management Solutions
  • FilesX.com    Backup and data protection software (Bought by IBM)
  • filetek.com    Data management solutions (Bought by SGI)
  • finisar.com    Test, Diagnostic, and Optic Transceivers
  • firescope.com    DCIM, IRM, PMDB, CMDB data solutions
  • First Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • Firewall Technical    AWS Desktop, Server and Network Support
  • flashsoft.com    SSD cache software (Bought by SANdisk)
  • Flexiant    Cloud management tools
  • flexstar.com    Hardware testing equipment
  • FNT Software    Data Center and DCIM software tools
  • Folder Sizes    Disk Space Management software tools
  • force10.com    High speed networking (Bought by Dell)
  • forsythe.com    VAR
  • foundrynetworks.com    Networking switches (Bought by Brocade)
  • FreeNAS    ZFS based NAS storage software
  • frety.com    Site with links to various technologies
  • fueleconomy.gov    US Government site for energy efficiency
  • fujifilm.com    Data storage tape media
  • Fujitsu.com    Computers, disks, storage
  • fujitsu-siemens.com    Storage, VTL, storage management solutions
  • fulcrummicro.com    10Gb and high performance chips and cross bars
  • fusionio.com    PCIe based NAND/FLASH local SSD for internal server attachment
  • ioturbine.com    IO optimization driver software (Bought by FusionIO)
  • fusionstorm.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • FutureMark    PC Benchmarking and testing tools (PCMark and others)
  • gear6.com    Data performance acceleration NAS caching appliance (Bought by Violin)
  • Geist Global    Data Center and DCIM tools
  • geminare.com    Cloud and application migration and recovery tools
  • genie-soft.com    Backup and data protection tools
  • genstor.com    Storage solutions
  • gfi.com    SMB Email security and data protection
  • gigaspace.com    Grid application and data management middle ware
  • gladinet.com    Cloud storage access software
  • Global Capacity    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • globalstor.com    Data storage solutions
  • glodynetechnoserve.com    IT Management tools
  • gluster.com    Open source clustered file system (Bought by Redhat)
  • gogrid.com    Cloud IaaS and hosting services
  • goldengate.com    Data protection and management software (Bought by Oracle)
  • goodsync.com    Data protection solutions
  • Google    Various cloud services including Google Drive, Documents and others
  • graudata.com    Archive software tools
  • Gravitant    Cloud brokerage and management tools
  • green-bytes.com    ZFS based storage management solutions
  • Greenfield Software    DCIM software tools
  • greenliant.com    Nand flash SSD for embedded solutions
  • greenplum.com    Data warehouse storage solutions (Bought by EMC)
  • greenracksystems.com    VAR
  • gresham-storage.com    Virtual tape solutions (VTL sold to Tributary)
  • GridGain    in memory computing
  • gridironsystems.com    Big data and high performance appliance storage
  • gridstore.com    Clustered NAS storage
  • Global Telecom Technology, Inc. (GTT)    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • Apache Hadoop    Hadoop Big Data Tools
  • hastorage.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • www.hddfiresafe.com    Fire proof and water resistant storage systems
  • hds.com    Storage sub-systems and software
  • hermes-softlab.com    IT and virtualization software
  • Hibernia Atlantic    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • hifn.com    Optimization technology (Bought by Exar)
  • high-rely.com    Removable storage solutions
  • hi-stor.com    VAR
  • hitachigst.com    Hitachi Global Storage Technologies – Disk drives (Bought by WD)
  • Hotlink    Data protection, cloud and virtualization management tools
  • hp.com    Storage networking hardware and software
  • htch.com    Hutchinson technologies – disk drive components
  • huawei.com    Networking technologies
  • hydrastor.com    Multi-tenant clustered storage (NEC)
  • hyper9.com    Virtualization management tools (aka Inovawave)
  • hyperio.com    Storage and I/O performance monitoring for Windows
  • hytrust.com    Virtual infrastructure security tools
  • Hyve Solutions   Open Compute Project Servers and Storage
  • i365.com    Online cloud backup (Bought by Seagate e.g. Evault)

  • i3-groep.nl    Dutch ICT VAR
  • iarchive.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • iBackup    Online and cloud backup service
  • ibm.com    Storage networking hardware and software
  • Ibrix.com    Clustered and cloud storage software (Bought by HP)
  • Iceweb.com    Data storage solutions
  • icorps.com    IT outsourcing and consulting services
  • IDRIVE    Cloud storage backup
  • idt.com    Server, storage, memory, networking components
  • ieee.org    Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  • ietf.org    Internet Engineering Task Force
  • iland    Cloud and virtualization services tools
  • illumita.com    IT Cloud solutions
  • Imation.com    Removable media, primary and archive storage (Bought Nexsan)
  • imperva.com    Data protection tools
  • imtpartners.com    Storage TCO modeling tool
  • Inboxer.com    Email and compliance risk management tools
  • Incentra.com    VAR (Bought by Datalink)
  • incipient.com    Storage management and virtualization (Assets bought by TMS)
  • indexengines.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification
  • infineta.com    WAN optimization
  • infinibandta.org    InfiniBand Trade Organization
  • infinicon.com    InfiniBand Technology
  • Infinio    VMware NAS I/O acceleration cache
  • infinityio.com    Storage networking training
  • infocachecorp.com    Data discovery solutions VAR
  • InfoGuard.com    Data security solutions
  • infology.net    eDiscovery
  • Infortrend.com    RAID controllers
  • infostor.com    Magazine focused on storage and storage networking
  • infostreet.com    Cloud Desktop tools
  • Inktank    Ceph services
  • inmage.com    Data protection appliance
  • innovationdp.com    Data management software
  • inoc.com    Network Operations Center (NOC) service
  • Inovawave.com    Virtualization management tools (aka Hyper9)
  • Inphase-technologies.com    Holographic storage
  • inquinox.com    Data, dedupe and data protection management tools
  • inrange.com    Storage Networking Formerly Dataswitch (Bought by CNT Bought by McData Bought by Brocade)
  • insight.com    Value Added Reseller (VAR)
  • insynchq.com    Cloud storage, document sharing
  • intel.com    Host adapters and chips
  • intelipathsolutions.com    Virtual network connectivity (Aka Onpath)
  • intellimagic.net    Server performance, resource management software
  • IntelliProp    SAS and SATA storage
  • InterCloud    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • intermedia.net.com    Exchange email hosting service
  • Intermine.com    Storage management software
  • Internap.com    Cloud, managed services, hosting and colo
  • interscapetech.com    Cloud and storage tools / services
  • InterSOC.com    Security management tools
  • intersystems.com    Medical Information Technology software
  • intradyn.com    Storage and data protection for SMB (Part of Sony)
  • intransa.com    iSCSI storage
  • Intronis.com    Online, managed and cloud backup solutions
  • iolo.com    Desktop tuneup, protection tools
  • iomega.com    SMB iSCSI, NAS and other storage (Bought by EMC, Partnering with Lenovo)
  • iometer.org    Iometer performance benchmarking tool
  • Ion Computer    Server, storage and data center solutions
  • iosafe.com    Rugged and fire proof, water proof storage
  • IP Fabrics    SDN switch
  • iphouse.com    MSP, hosting and cloud services
  • iqstor.com    Storage for SMB environments
  • iri.com    Big data management tools
  • CoSort Company IRI    Data management and protection tools
  • ironmountain.com    Data archive, managed and cloud services
  • ironspeed.com    Mobile database tools
  • iSecure    Internet security and forensics services
  • isilon.com    Shared storage – (Bought by EMC)
  • iso.org    International Standards Organizations
  • iStor.com    iSCSI storage
  • IT-ERNITY    Data center and hosting services
  • ivivity.com    Storage virtualization technology
  • iwavesoftware.com    Heterogeneous storage automation software
  • ixia.com    Fibre Channel test equipment
  • IX Reach    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • ixsight.com    IT and IRM/SRA insight and data migration
  • JAM Software    Treesize SRM including for NAS
  • jdsu.com    Storage networking optics
  • Jeda Networks    Software defined network and storage management
  • jedec.org    Joint Electron Device Engineering Council
  • jmr.com    Storage systems
  • jni.com    Host bus adapters
  • joyent.com    Cloud infrasture tools
  • jumpbox.com    VM virtual appliance hosting
  • jumpbox.com    Virtualization solutions
  • jungledisk.com    Cloud storage, backup file sharing
  • juniper.net    Networking technologies

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links K to O

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links K to O

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links K to O to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • kaminario.com    Scale out high performance database server
  • kanbox.com    Chineese cloud provider
  • kaseya.com    IT Infrastructure resource management tools
  • kashya.com    Data Protection Solutions (Bought by EMC)
  • kastenchase.com    Data and information security solutions
  • kazeon.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification (Bought by EMC)
  • kcura.com    eDiscovery tools
  • Kerstor.com    Cloud storage
  • kickfire.com    Business analytics tools
  • kineticd.com    Storage and data protection solutions
  • Kingston.com    Memory manufacturer
  • KLSecurity.com    Data protection solutions
  • komnetworks.com    Archiving solutions
  • k-par.com    Archiving solutions
  • ksplice.com    Linux management tools
  • Kubisys.com    Virtualization management tools
  • KVH Co. Ltd.    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • kvsinc.com    Email archiving and compliance software
  • lacie.com    Consumer, SOHO and SMB NAS and DAS storage (Bought by Seagate)
  • laconicsecurity.com    Cloud security and storage
  • lampertz.com    Environmental and data center protection
  • laurustech.com    Managed services provider
  • lecroy.com    Analyzers, probes and diagnostics
  • lefthandnetworks.com    iSCSI clustered storage (Bought by HP)
  • legato.com    Storage management software (Bought by EMC)
  • Lenovo   Servers, storage, workstations
  • Level 3 Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • lexar.com    Flash memory
  • liebert.com    Data center power and cooling systems (Bought by Emerson)
  • Lightower    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • lightsand.com    SAN connectivity
  • likewise.com    Open backup software for macs/Linux/windows
  • liquidcomputing.com    High density servers
  • liquidcoolsolutions.com    Liquid cooled servers
  • Liquidware Labs   Desktop management solutions
  • livedrive.com    Cloud storage and backup
  • www.liveoffice.com    Cloud and Email hosting
  • LiveVault.com    Online cloud backup service (Bought by IronMountain)
  • locknet-inc.com    Security and network management
  • Lockstep.com    Backup and data protection tools
  • logicube.com    Hard drive copy tools
  • LoginVSI   VDI Testing solutions
  • losttapes.org    Portal pertaining to lost magnetic tape information
  • lsi.com    Storage and networking chips and controllers (Bought by Avago)
  • lto-technology.com    Information about LTO tape media
  • lucent.com    Networking components
  • lumigent.com    Compliance management tools
  • luminex.com    S390 IBM Mainframe to open systems gateways
  • luxtera.com    High speed network and storage interconnects
  • m5data.com    VAR
  • MagePlace Backup    Backup and data protection solutions
  • Maginatics.com    Storage for virtual environments
  • magma.com    PCIe and storage solutions
  • mainline.com    VAR
  • Maintech    Infrastructure services
  • maintech.com    IT Servers and solutions
  • Maldivica    Cloud and object storage gateway
  • ManageEngine    DCIM, data center and networking management
  • maponics.com    Mapping data solutions
  • MAPR   Hadoop and Big Data Tools

  • maranti.com    Storage systems
  • marconi.com    Networking equipment
  • marvell.com    Data storage components
  • Masergy    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • Mathon.com    eDiscovery
  • maxava.com    HA tools for IBM iSeries
  • maxell.com    Data storage media
  • maxim-ic.com    Data storage components and solutions
  • maxiscale.com    Web infrastructure scale out file system
  • Maxta   Virtualization storage
  • maxtor.com    Disk drives (Bought by Seagate)
  • maxxan.com    Storage systems (Now Ciphermax)
  • mcdata.com    Switches, WAN gateways, software (Bought by Brocade)
  • mediagateusa.com    HD Video streaming appliance
  • Meditech.com    Medical information technology software
  • Megaport    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • mellanox.com    Ethernet and InfiniBand technology
  • Memeo.com    Data and content management tools
  • Mendocino.com    CDP and data protection (Missing in Action)
  • metalogix.net    Sharepoint archiving solutions
  • methode.com    Storage networking transceivers
  • mezeo.com    Cloud storage management tools
  • micron.com    SSD storage solutions
  • micronet.com    Storage solutions
  • microsoft.com    Hyper-V virtualizaiton, Windows Storage Server, Azure Cloud, Storsimple, SkyDrive (aka OneDrive) and more
  • midwave.com    Var
  • Mimecast email management including archiving
  • Mimosasystems.com    Email protection and archiving (Bought by Iron Mountain)
  • mindtree.com    Testing services
  • Mirantis    OpenStack tools, downloads, service and support
  • Miray HDClone    Storage clone and data protection tools
  • mirra.com    SMB storage sharing
  • mobiuspartners.com    VAR
  • Modius    DCIM power, cooling and monitoring
  • moka5.com    VDI tools
  • MongoDB    Open source document optimized database
  • Monitis.com    IT Monitoring and services (applications, systems, clouds and more)
  • Monosphere.com    Storage planning and usage software (Bought by Quest)
  • moonwalk.com    HSM, ILM and data management software
  • morphlabs.com    Dense converged server platforms
  • mosaictec.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • mosys.com    High density memory components
  • mpstor.com    Cloud storage and orchestration software
  • msiinet.com    VAR
  • mti.com    European VAR
  • mtron.net    Solid state storage devices
  • My Digital SSD    SSD solutions
  • NAKIVO    Backup and data protection tools
  • napatech.com    Network tools and analysis
  • naspa.org    System administrator’s user group
  • nasuni.com    Cloud storage access appliance
  • ncino.com    Banking and financial deployment platform
  • ncipher.com    Data protection and security solutions (Bought by Thales)
  • ncompass-inc.com    VAR and services firm
  • ncr.com    Servers and storage solutions
  • ndci.com    Data conversion services
  • ndmp.org    Trade organization for NDMP backup protocol
  • neartek.com    VTL software (Bought by EMC)
  • nebulassolutions.com    Security and data protection
  • NEC.com    Servers and storage
  • neopathnetworks.com    Network file management solutions (Bought by Cisco)
  • neoscale.com    Storage networking security (Assets Bought by nCipher)
  • nephoscale.com    Cloud and object storage
  • NeptunesCloud.net    Cloud IaaS solutions
  • www.neptuny.com    Performance and capacity planning tools
  • nerc.com    North American Electrical Reliability Council
  • netcelera.com    WAN File system caching and acceleration
  • netcomm.com.au    Broadband service provider
  • netdirectsystems.com    VAR
  • neterion.com    High performance iSCSI and Ethernet 10Gb technology Bought by Exar)
  • netex.com    IP compression and channel extension
  • netezza.com    Big Data – Data warehouse storage solutions (Bought by IBM)
  • Netgear.com    SOHO and SMB storage and networking
  • NetIQ    Data center, security, identify and data protection management
  • netlist.com    Memory solutions
  • netoptics.com    Network monitoring
  • netronome.com    Network and I/O optimization technology
  • netspi.com    Network security and digital forensics
  • networkappliance.com    Storage sub-systems, management software
  • networkgeneral.com    Network and application monitoring
  • networkinstruments.com    Network test and diagnostic and performance monitoring
  • netwrix.com    Enterprise systems management tools
  • netxen.com    High performance 10Gb Ethernet chips and NICs
  • neuwingenergy.com    Energy management organization
  • neuxpower.com    File compression and data reduction
  • Neverfailgroup.com    HA software
  • nevex.com    Caching and application acceleration
  • newboundary.com    IT policy management and IRM tools
  • newisys.com    Storage enclosures
  • newrelic.com    Web, cloud and application management
  • nexenta.com    ZFS based storage management solutions
  • nexgenstorage.com    Storage with PCIe flash card
  • nexsan.com    SAS/SATA and MAID storage subsystems (Bought by Imaiton)
  • nextio.com    SSD and application acceleration solutions
  • NexusMN / Computex    VAR (e.g. Formerly Nexus MN and Stratos – now Computex)
  • nfpa.org    National Fire Protection Association
  • nicira.com    Software defined networking and IOV (Bought by VMware)
  • nimblestorage.com    Converged iSCSI SAN, backup and DR
  • nimbula.com    Cloud and application orchestration management tools
  • Nimbusdata.com    iSCSI storage
  • nirvanix.com    Cloud storage provider (Ceased operations)
  • njvc.com    Cloud and technology service provider
  • Nylte    DCIM software tools
  • noggin.intel.com/rr/    Intel Recommended Reading List
  • noliosoft.com    Cloud application management tools
  • Norlight.com    Data communications and services
  • nortel.com    Networking products
  • nortelnetworks.com    Optical networking
  • northernsoft.com    Medical software
  • novastor.com    Backup and cloud data protection tools
  • Novell.com    Server software vendor (Bought by Attachmate)
  • Novuscg.com    Storage management and services (Bought by IBM)
  • Nomura Research Institute (NRI)    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • nsic.org    National Storage Industry Consortium
  • ntp.com    Storage Management Software
  • NTT Communications Corporation    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • numarasoftware.com    IT Resource management, asset tracking tools
  • numonyx.com    SSD memory solutions
  • nutanix.com    Converged server and storage VM platform
  • nvelo.com    Caching IO performance tools
  • nvidia.com    Graphics and visualization tools
  • ocarinanetworks.com    Data reduction and compression tools (Bought by Dell)
  • ocztechnology.com    SSD drives and PCIe cards (Bought by Toshiba after bankruptcy)
  • offsitebackups.com    Online and cloud backup solutions
  • olixir.com    Removable storage for backup and data protection
  • omneon.com    Archiving and fixed content storage solutions
  • onapp.com    Cloud, CDN and storage tools
  • onaro.com    Storage and Storage Network Management (Bought by NetApp)
  • onlinebackupsearch.com    Various online backup reviews
  • oblinecourses.com    Various online education courses for various topics
  • onpathtech.com    Physical layer networking
  • onstor.com    Clustered NAS storage including NAS gateways (Bought by LSI)
  • Ontrack.com    Email and data protection software
  • OO Software   Windows management and data protection tools
  • opalis.com    Virtual data center management tools
  • OpenCompute   OpenCompute consortium
  • opendatacenteralliance.org    Open Data Center Alliance
  • open-e.com    iSCSI and NAS storage
  • Open.IO    Application aware object and bulk scale out software defined storage
  • openfabrics.org    Open Fabric Alliance
  • OpenNebula    Open source cloud software
  • opennetworking.org    Open Networking Foundation
  • OpensourceSystems.com    Data storage solutions
  • OpenStack   Open source cloud compute and storage software
  • opnet.com    Application and network performance management
  • Opsware.com    Network and storage management (HP)
  • Optica Tech.    Server and storage connectivity including FICON
  • opticatech.com    Mainframe and ESCON encryption
  • oracle.com    Data management software, hardware and services (Bought Sun/STK and others)
  • Ortera.com    Performance monitoring and management
  • OSNEXUS   Quantstor ZFS based Storage management solutions
  • Outsource Data Recovery   Data Recovery services
  • overlandstorage.com    Tape and backup, data retention, NAS solutions
  • owncloud.org    Cloud infrastructure tools

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 6/13/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links P to T to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • Packeteer.com    WAFS and networking solutions (Bought Tacit)
  • packetlight.com    CWDM and DWDM networking solutions
  • Panasas.com    Clustered storage solution
  • pancetera.com    Virtual machine backup software (Bought by Quantum)
  • Panduit.com    Networking and cable management
  • panzura.com    Cloud storage access software
  • paraccel.com     Business and data analytics
  • paragon-software.com    Storage management and backup tools
  • parallels.com    VDI and desktop virtualization and cloud tools
  • parascale.com     Clustered and cloud storage software
  • pcisig.com    PCI trade group (PCI, PCI-X, PCI-Express/PCIe)
  • penguincomputing.com    HPC servers, storage and hosting
  • pergamumsystems.com    Archive solutions (Stealth)
  • Permabit.com    Data archiving solutions
  • Pernixdata    Server and storage I/O cache optimization for virtual servers
  • perotsystems.com    Hosting and managed service provider (Bought by Dell)
  • pgp.com    Security tools (Bought by Symantec)
  • PHDvirtual    Data protection tools
  • Pillardata.com    Data storage solutions – (Bought by Oracle)
  • pineapp.com    Email, archive solutions, web and data protection
  • Piviot3.com    IP Storage
  • Pivotal Labs    Big Data, PaaS development tools, EMC/VMware spinout
  • plasmon.com    (Now called Alliance Storage Technologies) Optical Storage Solutions
  • plextoramericas.com    SSD and other storage solutions
  • plianttechnology.com    Solid state storage devices (SSD) – (Bought by SANdisk)
  • Pluribus Networks    Converged and software defined network management
  • pmc-serria.com    Storage networking component supplier
  • pny.com    Memory componets and technology
  • Pogoplug    Cloud storage
  • PolyServe.com    Clustered storage solutions (Sold to HP)
  • Polargy    Data Center facilaties, HVAC and DCIM solutions
  • power.org    Power Processor trade group
  • Mushkin   SSD Solutions
  • Peak Cloud    Cloud and storage services
  • PowerFile.com    Data archiving solutions
  • powerware.com    UPS and power conditioning systems
  • procedo.com    Archiving and migration solutions
  • proceedtechnologies.com    SAP consulting
  • profusionbackups.com    Cloud and managed backup service solution
  • progeny.net    VAR and specialized IT systems
  • prolexic.com    Distributed denial of service tools
  • promise.com    RAID storage systems
  • Prostorsystems.com    Removable disk storage (See RDX Alliance)
  • Proxim.com    Wireless networking
  • proximaldata.com    SSD caching and tiering software
  • pt.com    Communications hardware and software
  • puresi.com aka Puresilicon    SSD storage solutions
  • purestorage.com    SSD based storage
  • Puppet Labs    IT Automation and DCIM tools for physical, Cloud and Virtual

  • qlogic.com    Host bus adapters and switches
  • qsantechnology.com    iSCSI IP storage
  • Qstart Technologies    Data protection storage including LTFS based systems
  • Quadric Software    Data protection software
  • qualstar.com    Tape backup and archive solutions (Aka Qstar)
  • quantum.com    Tape drives and libraries
  • quest.com    IT and data management solution tools (Bought by Dell)
  • Qumulo    Stealth storage startup
  • qwest.com    (Century Link) Telephone and data networking, managed services provider
  • racemi.com    Repurposing management tools
  • Rackable.com    Now SGI
  • Rackspace.com    Managed services and hosting
  • www.rackwise.com    Data center management tools
  • raidinc.com    Storage systems
  • raidundant.com    Storage systems
  • Rainfinity.com    File virtualization (Bought by EMC)
  • rainstor.com    Big data management tools
  • rapidio.org    RapidIO Trade Group
  • Raritan    Data center and DCIM tools
  • rasilient.com    Storage subsystem vendor
  • Ravello    VMware optimization and management tools
  • Raxco    Data, storage and systems management tools
  • rebit.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • RecordNation    Digital Data Storage and Records Management
  • redbend.com    Mobile device and application management
  • redbooks.ibm.com    IBM Red books and Red pieces technical articles
  • Redhat.com    Linux provider (Bought Gluster)
  • Reduxio    Hybrid storage with data services
  • reflexphotonics.com    Optical connectivity solutions
  • Reldata.com    Storage systems (Renamed Starboard)
  • remote-backup.com    Remote backup software
  • renewdata.com    Data management and compliance tools
  • repliweb.com    Web and content distribution
  • Retrospect    Data Protection Software Tools
  • revivio.com    Data Protection Software (Assets Bought by Symantec)
  • rightscale.com    Amazon cloud computing management tools
  • rimage.com    CD/DVD production technologies
  • risingtidesystems.com    VAR
  • Ritek.com    Storage solutions
  • rittal.com    Enclosures and cabinets
  • riverbed.com    Wide area file access acceleration solution
  • rjssoftware.com    Document capture and management
  • rmsource.com    Cloud backup solutions
  • rnanetworks.com    Virtual memory management solutions (Bought by Dell)
  • rocketdivision.com    iSCSI technologies
  • rorke.com    VAR
  • rpath.com    Data center automation
  • rsa.com    Security division of EMC
  • safemediacorp.com    Internet security and intrusion detection tools
  • safenet-inc.com    Data protection focused VAR
  • Sagecloud   Cloud storage, deep cold archive
  • samsung.com    Various technologies including SSD memory
  • sanblaze.com    Embedded storage and emulation solutions
  • SANbolic.com    Storage, server and cloud management tools
  • sand-chip.com    Chip design
  • SANDforce.com    SSD storage solutions – (Bought by LSI)
  • sandial.com    Defunct SAN startup
  • SANdisk.com    SSD memory components
  • sandpiperdata.com    Data migration services
  • sanmina-sci.com    Contract manufacturer (Virtual Factory) for various OEM/VARs
  • sanovi.com    Disaster recovery management tools
  • sanpulse.com    SRA and automation tools
  • sanrad.com    Storage networking routers (Bought by OCZ)
  • sans.org    Security related web site
  • sansdigital.com    VAR
  • sap.com    Information management tools and applications
  • sas.com    Statistical analysis software
  • sata-io.org    Serial ATA trade organization
  • SavageIO   High performance storage solutions
  • savvis.com    Cloud, managed service provider and hosting (Bought by Centurylink)
  • sbbwg.org    Storage Bridge Bay Working Group
  • scalable-systems.com    Data warehouse consulting and tools
  • scalecomputing.com    Clustered storage management software
  • scalemp.com    Virtualization technology for scale out computing
  • scalent.com    Virtual IT data center management tools
  • scality.com    Email and sharepoint cloud storage
  • schoonerinfotech.com    SSD based database management solutions
  • scsita.org    SCSI and SAS trade group
  • seagate.com    Disk drives
  • Sealpath   Data and information protection tools
  • seanodes.com    Distributed storage
  • sec.gov    Site about compliance items including CFR 17a-4
  • securedatainnovations.com    Data protection and security tools
  • sentilla.com    Data center performance management tools
  • sepaton.com    Disk based backup solutions
  • serialata.org    Serial ATA trade association
  • servicemesh.com    Cloud, datacenter transformation and devops tools
  • servicenow.com    ITIL data center management tools
  • 1servosity.com    Cloud data protection
  • servoy.com    Cloud development tools
  • ServPath.com    Hosting services
  • seven10storage.com    Disaster recovery and archiving software
  • sgi.com    Storage, server and data management hardware, software, tools
  • sherpasoftware.com    Email archiving
  • shop.bellmicro.com    Distributor (Bought by Avnet)
  • siber.com    Data protection and security tools
  • sidusdata.com    Managed service and cloud provider
  • siemon.com    Storage networking infrastructure items
  • sigmasol.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • Signiant.com    Data management tools
  • silexamerica.com    Mobile device and server connectivity
  • SiliconImage.com    Digital Video components
  • SiliconStor.com    Storage networking silicon
  • siliconvalleypr.com    IT technologies press/media and analyst relations firm
  • silveradotech.com    VAR
  • silver-peak.com    Wide area data and file services (WAFS, WADM, WADS)
  • SilverSky    Cloud security
  • simpletech.com    Storage solutions including USB portable devices
  • simplivity.com    Convergence and virtualization solutions
  • simplycontinuous.net    Data protection and cloud backup
  • siriuscom.com    VAR
  • site-vault.com    On-line backup server provider (BSP) managed service provider (MSP)
  • skyera.com    SSD storage solutions
  • skytap.com    Public and private cloud application development tools
  • Smart421   Smart421    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • smartm.com    PC card and other memory module components
  • smc.com    Storage and networking components
  • smithmicro.com    Mobile data management tools
  • smmdirect.com    Memory devices
  • snapappliances.com    NAS Storage solutions (Now Adaptec)
  • snia.org    Storage Networking Industry Association
  • snseurope.com    U.K. & European Storage Networking News
  • snwusa.com    SNIA and Computerworld conference
  • softek.com    Storage management solutions (formerly Fujitsu Softek, Sold to IBM)
  • softlayer.com    Cloud infrastructure services (IaaS) (Bought by IBM)
  • softnas.com    ZFS based opensource NAS solutions
  • softricity.com    Virtualization management tools (Bought by Microsoft)
  • Sogeti.com    Data management tools
  • solarflare.com    10Gb Ethernet networking
  • solarwinds.com    IT management tools (Bought TekTools, Hyper9 and others)
  • solidaccess.com    Solid state storage (SSD) solutions
  • soliddata.com    Solid State Disk solutions
  • solidfire.com    iSCSI SSD optimized for hosting and cloud providers
  • Solix.com    Database archiving software
  • solutiontechnology.co.uk    Storage networking training
  • sonasoft.com    Email archiving, backup and data protection
  • sonnettech.com    External storage solutions
  • sony.com    Storage devices
  • sophos.com    Data protection and security tools
  • sorrento.com    Optical networking
  • sparebackup.com    Backup data protection solutions
  • sparkweave.com    Private cloud archive and file sharing
  • spec.org    SPEC benchmarks
  • spectralogic.com    Tape library and disk based backup solutions
  • spiceworks.com    Online community and management software tools
  • spirent.com    Storage networking test equipment
  • Spiron.com  Data discovery, classification, lifecycle management (formerly Identity Finder)
  • Splice Communications   Splice Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • splunk.com    DCIM and log management tools
  • spotcloud.com    Cloud services clearing house
  • spraycool.com    IT Data center and component cooling
  • springsoft.com    Bought by Synopsys
  • spsoftglobal.com    Software development
  • spyrus.com    Security tools
  • ssswg.org    IEEE Storage Systems Standards Work Group
  • starboardstorage.com    Unified storage solutions (Formerly Reldata, now ceased operations)
  • startech.com    IT/AV technolgie equipment from enclosures to KVM and more
  • starwindsoftware.com    iSCSI storage management solutions
  • stcroixsolutions.com    VAR
  • stec-inc.com    SSD storage (Bought by WD)
  • Steeleye.com    HA software
  • Stellar    Data Protection tools
  • storagetek.com    Disk, tape, data management software (Bought by Sun)
  • stonebranch.com    File transfer tools
  • stonefly.com    Storage networking routers (Aka DNF)
  • storability.com    Storage management software (Bought by STK)
  • storactive.com    Data protection solutions
  • storagecraft.com    Data protection tools
  • storagefusion.com    Storage resource analysis (SRA) tools
  • storageio.net    Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
  • storageiogroup.com    Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
  • storagemadeeasy.com    Hybrid and personal cloud management tools and dashboards
  • Storagemonkeys.com    Storage community site
  • storagenetworking.org    Storage Networking Users Groups also known as SNUGs
  • storageperformance.org    Storage Performance Council information
  • www.storagesearch.com    Venue for information about various storage and related topics
  • storcase.com    Data Archive solutions (Bought by Crudata)
  • store-age.com    Storage management software (Bought by LSI)
  • storediq.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification (Bought by IBM)
  • Storewize.com    Real time data compression (Bought by IBM)
  • Storix.com    Data backup solutions
  • storlife.com    CAS object archive storage
  • stormagic.com    Storage virtualization and data movement software
  • storserver.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • storsimple.com    Cloud storage access solutions (Bought by Microsoft)
  • storspeed.com    NAS/NFS optimization solutions (Missing in action)
  • stratascale.com    Cloud, hosting and management solutions
  • stratus.com    High availability storage and servers
  • sugarsync.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • sun.com    Storage networking hardware and software (Bought by Oracle)
  • sunbeltsoftware.com    End point data protection security tools
  • sungard.com    Data protection and cloud services
  • superlumin.com    Application caching tools
  • supermicro.com    Server and storage solutions
  • surdoc.com    Cloud storage and backup
  • surgient.com    Cloud computing solutions
  • svlg.net    Silicon Valley Leadership Group
  • Swiftstack    Private cloud solutions
  • swifttest.com    NFS and CIFS storage testing solutions
  • sybase.com    Database solutions
  • sycamorenetworks.com    Networking solutions
  • Symantec.com    Data and storage management software
  • symbolicio.com    stealth startup
  • symform.com    Cloud storage and backup
  • syncsort.com    Information Management tools
  • synnex.com    Distributor
  • Synnex   IT Solutions
  • synology.com    SMB storage solutions
  • synopsys.com    Computer technology development and manufacturing
  • SysAid    Data center, DCIM and ITSM tools
  • t10.orgscsi-3.htm    ANSI T10 (SCSI information) site
  • t11.org    ANSI T11 page for Fibre Channel information
  • t3media.com    Cloud storage and video platform tools
  • tableausoftware.com    Data analytics software tools
  • tacit.com    WAN file system accelerator (Bought by Packeteer)
  • tacitnetworks.com    Wide area file access acceleration solution (Bought by Packeteer)
  • tandberg.com    Data management solutions (Bought by Cisco)
  • tapeandmedia.com    Information about magnetic tape media
  • tapepower.com    Site for tape topics
  • tarmin.com        Archiving solutions
  • teamdrive.com    Cloud storage
  • teamquest.com    IRM management and capacity management tools
  • TeamViewer.com    Remote support and Online meeting software
  • techdata.com    Distributor
  • tegile.com    Storage system solutions
  • tehutinetworks.net    High speed iSCSI adapters
  • tek-tools.com    SRM storage management software (Bought by Solarwinds)
  • TelecityGroup    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • tellabs.com    Networking components
  • Telx    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • teneros.com    Email archiving and management solutions
  • teracloud.com    Capacity planning and resource management software
  • teradata.com    Large scale database and data warehouse systems
  • teradici.com    PC over IP technologies
  • teranetics.com    Ethernet chips
  • Terascala    Data analytics and management solutions
  • ter.de    Optical storage libraries
  • terracloudinc.com    Cloud services
  • TerraScale.com    Scalable storage and server solutions
  • Verizon/Terremark   Cloud, hosting and managed services
  • Tevron   Application Response Time Monitoring
  • texmemsys.com    Solid State Disk storage
  • thebci.org    Business Continuity Institute
  • thecus.com    Multi-protocol storage
  • thegreengrid.org    Industry Trade Group
  • The Padcaster    Apple iPad tools
  • thepluggllc.com    Data center energy efficient floor tiles
  • theq3.com    Data storage security solutions
  • thinkaheadit.com aka Ahead    Value added reseller
  • thinkaheadit.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • thirdbrigade.com    Intrusion detection security tools (Bought by Trend Micro)
  • thirdio.com    SSD solutions
  • tiaonline.org    Telecommunications Industry Association
  • tidalsoftware.com    IT Management software tools (Bought by Cisco)
  • timespring.com    Continuous data protection solutions
  • tintri.com    NFS and NAS storage optimized for VMware
  • tivoli.com    Data management software
  • Softbank Telecom Corp.    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • Primary Data and Tonian    Stealth data virtualization startup
  • topgun-tech.com    Data Infrastructure Resource (Server, Storage, SANs)
  • top500.org    Top 500 super compute sites
  • topio.com    Data protection software (Bought by NetApp)
  • topspin.com    InfiniBand Technology (Bought by Cisco)(
  • Toshiba.com    Server and storage solutions
  • tpc.org    Transaction processing performance council
  • translattice.com    Distributed and elastic database and automation tools
  • Tredent.com    WAN optimization solutions
  • TrendMicro.com    Security and anti virus tools
  • trianz.com    VAR
  • tributary.com   Datra protection soultion tools including virtual, disk and tape-
  • trilogytechnologies.ie    Managed services provider
  • tritondata.com    IT services and VAR
  • trunkbow.com    Cloud, mobile and networking services
  • trustedcomputinggroup.org    Trusted computing industry trade group
  • trusteddatasolutions.com    VAR
  • trustedid.com    ID theft protection
  • trustware.com    Internet and data protection security tools
  • turnkeylinux.org   Turnkey Linux appliance –
  • tusc.com    VAR
  • twinstrata.com    BC/DR analysis and cloud access software
  • tw telecom   tw telecom    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • TSO logic    DCIM and data center power energy management tools
  • tzolkin.com    DNS and High Availability solutions

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links U to Z to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • ubuntu.com    Opensource Linux software and cloud tools
  • unisys.com    Server, storage and managed services
  • unitedlayer.com    Collocation and hosting services
  • unitrends.com    Data protection solutions
  • updraftplus.com/    WordPress Updraft Cloud Backup Plugin
  • uptimeinstitute.org    Uptime Institute
  • uptimesoftware.com    Capacity management tools
  • Logicalis   IT solutions and managed services
  • us.logicalis.com    Cloud, managed and data center services
  • usb.org    USB trade association
  • uscolo.com    Co-location facility and hosting service
  • usenix.org    LISA and data center forums
  • usgbc.org    United States Green Building Council
  • v3sys.com    VDI and desktop cloud solutions
  • vadiumtech.com    Security and encryption tools
  • varonis.com    Unstructured data management and protection
  • vaultive.com    Cloud encryption for hosted exchange
  • vaultize.com    Cloud backup, file and data sharing
  • vaultstor.com    Data protection and cloud storage services
  • vaultus.com   Cloud, colo and manged service hosting –
  • vbridges.com    Virtual desktop management tools
  • vce.com    Converged infrastructure solutions
  • vdbench     vdbench storage testing/workload generation tool
  • veeam.com    Virtual server data protection, reporting, monitoring, cap planning
  • vellosystems.com   Cloud infrastructure technology solutoins –
  • velobit.com    SSD cache software (Bought by WD)
  • veloxum.com   VM performance management tools Added 11/30/10
  • vembu.com    Backup data protection tools
  • Venus   Venus    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • venyu.com    Cloud hosting
  • verari.com    Blade servers and blade storage
  • verdiem.com    Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM) and energy reporting tools
  • vericept.com    Network monitoring software
  • Veritest.com    Third party testing service

  • verity.com    Data search, discovery, classification
  • versant.com    Object database management solutions
  • vertinsys.com    Server I/O virtualization
  • Vibe    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • victorinox.com    Swiss army knife and USB thumb drive
  • viewfinity.com    Rights management, audit and compliance
  • vigitrust.com    Security management tools
  • vikingmodular.com    FLASH SSD storage solutions
  • violin-memory.com    FLASH SSD storage solutions
  • vion.com    Value added reseller
  • vipreantivirus.com    Security, data loss, data leak prevention
  • virident.com    SSD based database management solutions (Bought by WD)
  • viridity.com    Data center and infrastructure resource management (IRM) tools
  • virsto.com    Server virtualization management tools (Bought by VMware)
  • virtensys.com    Virtual I/O and I/O virtualization (IOV)
  • virtualinstruments.com    SAN probes/analyzers (Formerly Finisar Analyzer tools)
  • VirtualIron.com    Server virtualization (Bought by Oracle)
  • VirtunetSystems    Storage I/O acceleration and cache tools for VMware
  • virtuon-inc.com    Cloud, virtualization IT consulting and staffing
  • visi.com    Managed service provider, cloud and hosting service
  • VisionSolutions.com    BC, DR and data protection solutions
  • visualstorageintelligence.com    Cross vendor cloud storage reporting and srmprovider
  • vitesse.com    Storage networking component supplier
  • vivisimo.com    eDiscovery and search
  • vizoncore.com    Virtualization tools and data protection for virtual servers
  • vizrt.com    Video management software tools
  • vkernel.com    VM performance tools (Bought by Quest, bought by Dell)
  • vmc.com    Cloud consulting and outsourcing
  • vmturbo.com    Cloud and virtualization workload management
  • vmware.com    Server virtualization software (Bought by EMC)
  • Vocus   Vocus    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • voltaire.com    InfiniBand Technology
  • vontu.com    Data loss prevention tools (Bought by Symantec)
  • Vormetric   Data security solutions
  • votela.com    Specialized network service provider
  • vscalesystems.com    Virtual and converged networking and consulting
  • vssmonitoring.com    Network monitoring
  • vwsolutions.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • vyatta.com    Cloud and virtual networking, IOV
  • wanova.com    Desktop management solutions
  • wasabisystems.com    iSCSI storage
  • wdc.com    Western Digital Disk drives
  • WedgeNetworks.com    Security solutions
  • whiptailtech.com    Flash SSD solutions (Bought by Cisco)
  • Microsoft Skydrive   Cloud storage
  • windspring.com    Data management and DFR for mobile access
  • wipro.com    Business services
  • workscomputing.com    VAR
  • wovensystems.com    High speed networking switches
  • wwt.com    VAR/Systems integrator
  • wysdm.com    SRA and DPM management tools (Bought by EMC)
  • Xencode.com    Various open tools
  • XenData   Digital Archive solutions
  • xenos.com    Archive and data footprint reduction solutions
  • xfpmsa.org    10Gb multi-source trade group
  • xiotech.com    Renamed XIO: Storage sub-systems and software
  • xirin.com    Storage adapter (iSCSI) and chip vendor
  • xosoft.com    BC/DR and data protection replication tools (Bought by CA)
  • xsigo.com    I/O virtualization and service oriented connectivity – (Bought by Oracle)
  • xtreemfs.org    scaleout filesystem
  • xtremio.com    SSD startup – Bought by EMC
  • xyratex.com    Storage enclosures, subsystems, test equipmen, Lustre software (Bought by Seagate)t
  • xyxel.com    Networking technologies for cloud and consumer
  • yorktel.com    video solutions
  • Yosemitetech.com    Backup software (Bought by Barracuda)
  • yousendit.com    Cloud backup, storage and file sharing
  • zadarastorage.com    iSCSI cloud storage
  • zenoss.com    Converged, Virtual systems and cloud monitoring, DCIM
  • Zentera   Private cloud and IaaS solutions
  • zerto.com    Data protection for virtual environments
  • Zetera.com    Storage over IP alternative to iSCSI
  • zetta.net    Cloud storage solutions
  • zettapoint.com    Database management tools
  • zintrus.com    Systems development
  • zirtu.com    VDI management tools and platform
  • zlti.com    Email archive and management solutions
  • zmanda.com    Open source data backup
  • zoho.com    Online and cloud management solutions
  • zyrion.com    Network and systems monitoring and management

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • www.10gea.org    10Gb Ethernet industry trade organization
  • www.1394ta.org    1394 (Firewire) trade association
  • www.3com.com    Networking equipment (Bought by HP)
  • www.3leafnetworks.com    I/O virtualization
  • www.3par.com    Clustered storage systems (Bought by HP)
  • www.3tera.com    IT Cloud management tools (Bought by CA)
  • www.4blox.com    Data center design services
  • www.4blox.com    Linux iSCSI target optimization stack
  • www.4bridgeworks.com aka Bridgeworks    SAN networking and connectivity solutions
  • www.80plus.org    Energy efficient power supply trade group

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

Updated 2/2/2018

server storage I/O trends

Will 2017 be there year of solid state device (SSD), all flash, or all Non-volatile memory (NVM) based storage data centers and data infrastructures?

Recently I did a piece over at InfoStor looking at SSD trends, tips and related topics. SSDs of some type, shape and form are in your future, if they are not already. In my InfoStor piece, I look at some non-volatile memory (NVM) and SSD trends, technologies, tools and tips that you can leverage today to help prepare for tomorrow. This also includes NVM Express (NVMe) based components and solutions.

By way of background, SSD can refer to solid state drive or solid state device (e.g. more generic). The latter is what I am using in this post. NVM refers to different types of persistent memories, including NAND flash and its variants most commonly used today in SSDs. Other NVM mediums include NVRAM along with storage class memories (SCMs) such as 3D XPoint and phase change memory (PCM) among others. Let’s focus on NAND flash as that is what is primarily available and shipping for production enterprise environments today.

Continue reading about SSD, flash, NVM and related trends, topics and tips over at InfoStor by clicking here.

Where To Learn More

Additional related content can be found at:

What This All Means

Will 2017 finally be the year of all flash, all SSD and all NVM including emerging storage class memories (SCM)? Or as we have seen over the past decade increasing adoption as well as deployment in most environments, some of which have gone all SSD or NVM. In the meantime it is safe to say that NVMe, NVM, SSD, flash and other related technologies are in your future in some shape or form as well as quantity. Check out my piece over at InfoStor SSD trends, tips and related topics.

What say you, are you going all flash, SSD or NVM in 2017, if not, what are your concerns or constraints and plans?

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and <a “https://storageioblog.com/book1”>Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

Server StorageIO August 2016 Update Newsletter

Volume 16, Issue VIII

Hello and welcome to this August 2016 Server StorageIO update newsletter.

In This Issue

  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Industry Activity Trends
  • Resources and Links
  • Enjoy this shortened summer edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

    Cheers GS

    Industry Activity Trends

    With VMworld coming up this week, rest assured, there will be plenty to talk about and discuss in the following weeks. However for now, here are a few things from this past month.

    At Flash Memory Summit (FMS) which is more of a component, vendor to vendor industry type event, there was buzz about analytics, however what was shown as analytics tended to be Iometer. Hmmm, more on that in a future post. However something else at FMS besides variations of Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) including SSD, NAND, Flash, Storage Class Memory (SCM) such as 3D XPoint (among its new marketing names) along with NVM Expres (NVMe) was NVMe over Fabric.

    This includes NVMe over RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) which can be implemented on some 10 Gb (and faster) Ethernet adapters as well as some InfiniBand adapters from Mellanox among others. Another variation is Fibre Channel NVMe (FC-NVMe) where the NVMe protocol command set is transported as a Upper Level Protocol (ULP) over FC. This is similar to how the SCSI command set is implemented on FC (e.g. SCSI_FCP or FCP) which means NVMe can be seen as a competing protocol to FCP (which it will or could be). Naturally not to be left out, some of the marketers have already started with Persistent Memory over Fabric among other variations of Non- Ephemeral Memory over Fabrics. More on NVM, NVMe and fabrics in future posts, commentary and newsletter.

    Some other buzzword topics regaining mention (or perhaps for the first time for some) includes
    FedRAMP, Authority To Operate (ATO) clouds for Government entities, and FISMA among others. Many service providers, cloud and hosting providers from large AWS and Azure to smaller Blackmesh have added FedRAMP and other options in addition to traditional, DevOps.

    Some of you may recall me mentioning ScaleMP in the past which is a technology for aggregating multiple compute servers including processors and memory into a converged resource pool. Think the opposite of a hypervisor that divides up resources to support consolidation. In other words, where you need to scale up without complexity of clustering or to avoid having to change and partition your software applications. In addition to ScaleMP, a newer hardware agnostic startup to check out is Tidal Scale.

    On the merger and acquisition front, the Dell / EMC deal is moving forward expected to close soon, perhaps by time or before you read this. In other news, HPE announced that it is buying SGI to gain access to a larger part of the traditional legacy big data Super Compute and High Performance Compute (HPC) market. One of the SGI diamonds in the rough that if you are not aware, is DMF for data management. HPE and Dropbox also announced a partnership deal earlier this summer.

    That’s all for now, time to pack my bags and off to Las Vegas for VMworld 2016.

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

     

    StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

     

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

    Via FutureReadyOEM Q&A: when to implement ultra-dense storage
    Via EnterpriseStorageForum Comments on Top 10 Enterprise SSD Market Trends
    Via SearchStorage Comments on NAS system buying decisions
    Via EnterpriseStorageForum Comments on Cloud Storage Pros and Cons
    EnterpriseStorageForum Comments on Top 10 Enterprise SSD Market Trends

    View more Server, Storage and I/O hardware as well as software trends comments here

     

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent and past Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    Via Iron Mountain Preventing Unexpected Disasters: IT and Data Infrastructure
    Via FutureReadyOEM Q&A: When to implement ultra-dense storage servers
    Via Micron Blog Whats next for NVMe and your Data Center – Preparing for Tomorrow
    Redmond Magazine: Trends – Evolving from Data Protection to Data Resiliency
    IronMountain: 5 Noteworthy Data Privacy Trends From 2015
    InfoStor: Data Protection Gaps, Some Good, Some Not So Good
    Virtual Blocks (VMware Blogs): EVO:RAIL ? When And Where To Use It?

    Check out these resources techniques, trends as well as tools. View more tips and articles here

    StorageIO Webinars and Industry Events

    December 7: BrightTalk Webinar – Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Webinar 11AM PT

    November 23: BrightTalk Webinar – BCDR and Cloud Backup – Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) and Data Protection – 10AM PT

    November 23: BrightTalk Webinar – Cloud Storage – Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) – 9AM PT

    November 22: BrightTalk Webinar – Cloud Infrastructure – Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) – 10AM PT

    October 20: BrightTalk Webinar – Next-Gen Data Centers – Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) including Servers, Storage and Virtualizations – 9AM PT

    September 29: TBA Webinar – 10AM PT

    September 27-28 – NetApp – Las Vegas

    September 20: BrightTalk Webinar – Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) Enabling Software Defined Data Centers – Part of Software-Defined Storage summit – 8AM PT

    September 13: Redmond Webinar – Windows Server 2016 and Active Directory What’s New and How to Plan for Migration – 11AM PT

    September 8: Redmond Webinar – Data Protection for Modern Microsoft Environments – 11AM PT

    August 29-31: VMworld Las Vegas

    August 25 – MSP CMG – The Answer is Software Defined – What was the question?

    August 16: BrightTalk Webinar Software Defined Data Centers (SDDC) are in your future (if not already) – Part of Enterprise Software and Infrastructure summit 8AM PT

    August 10-11 Flash Memory Summit (Panel discussion August 11th) – NVMe over Fabric

    See more webinars and other activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

     

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:

    storageio.com/links – Various industry links (over 1,000 with more to be added soon)
    objectstoragecenter.com – Cloud and object storage topics, tips and news items
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/ – Various data protection items and topics
    thenvmeplace.com – Focus on NVMe trends and technologies
    thessdplace.com – NVM and Solid State Disk topics, tips and techniques
    storageio.com/performance.com – Various server, storage and I/O performance and benchmarking

    Ok, nuff said

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Part V – NVMe overview primer (Where to learn more, what this all means)

    server storage I/O trends
    Updated 1/12/2018
    This is the fifth in a five-part mini-series providing a NVMe primer overview.

    View Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V as well as companion posts and more NVMe primer material at www.thenvmeplace.com.

    There are many different facets of NVMe including protocol that can be deployed on PCIe (AiC, U.2/8639 drives, M.2) for local direct attached, dedicated or shared for front-end or back-end of storage systems. NVMe direct attach is also found in servers and laptops using M.2 NGFF mini cards (e.g. "gum sticks"). In addition to direct attached, dedicated and shared, NVMe is also deployed on fabrics including over Fibre Channel (FC-NVMe) as well as NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF) leveraging RDMA based networks (e.g. iWARP, RoCE among others).

    The storage I/O capabilities of flash can now be fed across PCIe faster to enable modern multi-core processors to complete more useful work in less time, resulting in greater application productivity. NVMe has been designed from the ground up with more and deeper queues, supporting a larger number of commands in those queues. This in turn enables the SSD to better optimize command execution for much higher concurrent IOPS. NVMe will coexist along with SAS, SATA and other server storage I/O technologies for some time to come. But NVMe will be at the top-tier of storage as it takes full advantage of the inherent speed and low latency of flash while complementing the potential of multi-core processors that can support the latest applications.

    With NVMe, the capabilities of underlying NVM and storage memories are further realized Devices used include a PCIe x4 NVMe AiC SSD, 12 GbpsSAS SSD and 6 GbpsSATA SSD. These and other improvements with NVMe enable concurrency while reducing latency to remove server storage I/O traffic congestion. The result is that application demanding more concurrent I/O activity along with lower latency will gravitate towards NVMe for access fast storage.

    Like the robust PCIe physical server storage I/O interface it leverages, NVMe provides both flexibility and compatibility. It removes complexity, overhead and latency while allowing far more concurrent I/O work to be accomplished. Those on the cutting edge will embrace NVMe rapidly. Others may prefer a phased approach.

    Some environments will initially focus on NVMe for local server storage I/O performance and capacity available today. Other environments will phase in emerging external NVMe flash-based shared storage systems over time.

    Planning is an essential ingredient for any enterprise. Because NVMe spans servers, storage, I/O hardware and software, those intending to adopt NVMe need to take into account all ramifications. Decisions made today will have a big impact on future data and information infrastructures.

    Key questions should be, how much speed do your applications need now, and how do growth plans affect those requirements? How and where can you maximize your financial return on investment (ROI) when deploying NVMe and how will that success be measured?

    Several vendors are working on, or have already introduced NVMe related technologies or initiatives. Keep an eye on among others including AWS, Broadcom (Avago, Brocade), Cisco (Servers), Dell EMC, Excelero, HPE, Intel (Servers, Drives and Cards), Lenovo, Micron, Microsoft (Azure, Drivers, Operating Systems, Storage Spaces), Mellanox, NetApp, OCZ, Oracle, PMC, Samsung, Seagate, Supermicro, VMware, Western Digital (acquisition of SANdisk and HGST) among others.

    Where To Learn More

    View additional NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What this all means

    NVMe is in your future if not already, so If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Where, How to use NVMe overview primer

    server storage I/O trends
    Updated 1/12/2018

    This is the fourth in a five-part miniseries providing a primer and overview of NVMe. View companion posts and more material at www.thenvmeplace.com.

    Where and how to use NVMe

    As mentioned and shown in the second post of this series, initially, NVMe is being deployed inside servers as “ back-end,” fast, low latency storage using PCIe Add-In-Cards (AIC) and flash drives. Similar to SAS NVM SSDs and HDDs that support dual-paths, NVMe has a primary path and an alternate path. If one path fails, traffic keeps flowing without causing slowdowns. This feature is an advantage to those already familiar with the dual-path capabilities of SAS, enabling them to design and configure resilient solutions.

    NVMe devices including NVM flash AIC flash will also find their way into storage systems and appliances as back-end storage, co-existing with SAS or SATA devices. Another emerging deployment configuration scenario is shared NVMe direct attached storage (DAS) with multiple server access via PCIe external storage with dual paths for resiliency.

    Even though NVMe is a new protocol, it leverages existing skill sets. Anyone familiar with SAS/SCSI and AHCI/SATA storage devices will need little or no training to carry out and manage NVMe. Since NVMe-enabled storage appears to a host server or storage appliance as an LUN or volume, existing Windows, Linux and other OS or hypervisors tools can be used. On Windows, such as,  other than going to the device manager to see what the device is and what controller it is attached to, it is no different from installing and using any other storage device. The experience on Linux is similar, particularly when using in-the-box drivers that ship with the OS. One minor Linux difference of note is that instead of seeing a /dev/sda device as an example, you might see a device name like /dev/nvme0n1 or /dev/nvme0n1p1 (with a partition).

    Keep in mind that NVMe like SAS can be used as a “back-end” access from servers (or storage systems) to a storage device or system. For example JBOD SSD drives (e.g. 8639), PCIe AiC or M.2 devices. NVMe can also like SAS be used as a “front-end” on storage systems or appliances in place of, or in addition to other access such as GbE based iSCSI, Fibre Channel, FCoE, InfiniBand, NAS or Object.

    What this means is that NVMe can be implemented in a storage system or appliance on both the “front-end” e.g. server or host side as well as on the “back-end” e.g. device or drive side that is like SAS. Another similarity to SAS is that NVMe dual-pathing of devices, permitting system architects to design resiliency into their solutions. When the primary path fails, access to the storage device can be maintained with failover so that fast I/O operations can continue when using SAS and NVMe.

    NVM connectivity options including NVMe
    Various NVM NAND flash SSD devices and their connectivity including NVMe, M2, SATA and 12 Gbps SAS are shown in figure 6.

    Various NVM SSD interfaces including NVMe and M2
    Figure 6 Various NVM flash SSDs (Via StorageIO Labs)

    Left in figure 6 is an NAND flash NVMe PCIe AiC, top center is a USB thumb drive that has been opened up showing an NAND die (chip), middle center is a mSATA card, bottom center is an M.2 card, next on the right is a 2.5” 6 Gbps SATA device, and far fright is a 12 Gbps SAS device. Note that an M.2 card can be either an SATA or NVMe device depending on its internal controller that determines which host or server protocol device driver to use.

    The role of PCIe has evolved over the years as has its performance and packaging form factors. Also, to add in card (AiC) slots, PCIe form factors also include M.2 small form factor that replaces legacy mini-PCIe cards. Another form factor is M.2 (aka Next Generation Form Factor or NGFF) that like other devices, can be an NVMe, or SATA device.

    NGFF also known as 8639 or possibly 8637 (figure 7) can be used to support SATA as well as NVMe depending on the card device installed and host server driver support. There are various M.2 NGFF form factors including 2230, 2242, 2260 and 2280. There are also M.2 to regular physical SATA converter or adapter cards that are available enabling M.2 devices to attach to legacy SAS/SATA RAID adapters or HBAs.

    NVMe 8637 and 8639 interface backplane slotsNVMe 8637 and 8639 interface
    Figure 7 PCIe NVMe 8639 Drive (Via StorageIO Labs)

    On the left of figure 7 is a view towards the backplane of a storage enclosure in a server that supports SAS, SATA, and NVMe (e.g. 8639). On the right of figure 7 is the connector end of an 8639 NVM SSD showing addition pin connectors compared to an SAS or SATA device. Those extra pins give PCIe x4 connectivity to the NVMe devices. The 8639 drive connectors enable a device such as an NVM, or NAND flash SSD to share a common physical storage enclosure with SAS and SATA devices, including optional dual-pathing.

    Where To Learn More

    View additional NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    Be careful judging a device or component by its physical packaging or interface connection about what it is or is not. In figure 6.6 the device has SAS/SATA along with PCIe physical connections, yet it’s what’s inside (e.g. its controller) that determines if it is an SAS, SATA or NVMe enabled device. This also applies to HDDs and PCIe AiC devices, as well as I/O networking cards and adapters that may use common physical connectors, yet implement different protocols. For example, the SFF-8643 HD-Mini SAS internal connector is used for 12 Gbps SAS attachment as well as PCIe to devices such as 8630.

    Depending on the type of device inserted, access can be via NVMe over PCIe x4, SAS (12 Gbps or 6Gb) or SATA. 8639 connector based enclosures have a physical connection with their backplanes to the individual drive connectors, as well as to PCIe, SAS, and SATA cards or connectors on the server motherboard or via PCIe riser slots.

    While PCIe devices including AiC slot based, M.2 or 8639 can have common physical interfaces and lower level signaling, it’s the protocols, controllers, and drivers that determine how they get a software defined and used. Keep in mind that it’s not just the physical connector or interface that determines what a device is or how it is used, it’s also the protocol, command set, and controller and device drivers.

    Continue reading about NVMe with Part V (Where to learn more, what this all means) in this five-part series, or jump to Part I, Part II or Part III.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    NVMe Need for Performance Speed Performance

    server storage I/O trends
    Updated 1/12/2018

    This is the third in a five-part mini-series providing a primer and overview of NVMe. View companion posts and more material at www.thenvmeplace.com.

    How fast is NVMe?

    It depends! Generally speaking NVMe is fast!

    However fast interfaces and protocols also need fast storage devices, adapters, drivers, servers, operating systems and hypervisors as well as applications that drive or benefit from the increased speed.

    A server storage I/O example is in figure 5 where a 6 Gbps SATA NVM flash SSD (left) is shown with an NVMe 8639 (x4) drive that were directly attached to a server. The workload is 8 Kbyte sized random writes with 128 threads (workers) showing results for IOPs (solid bar) along with response time (dotted line). Not surprisingly the NVMe device has a lower response time and a higher number of IOPs. However also note how the amount of CPU time used per IOP is lower on the right with the NVMe drive.

    NVMe storage I/O performance
    Figure 5 6 Gbps SATA NVM flash SSD vs. NVMe flash SSD

    While many people are aware or learning about the IOP and bandwidth improvements as well as the decrease in latency with NVMe, something that gets overlooked is how much less CPU is used. If a server is spending time in wait modes that can result in lost productivity, by finding and removing the barriers more work can be done on a given server, perhaps even delaying a server upgrade.

    In figure 5 notice the lower amount of CPU used per work activity being done (e.g. I/O or IOP) which translates to more effective resource use of your server. What that means is either doing more work with what you have, or potentially delaying a CPU server upgrade, or, using those extra CPU cycles to power software defined storage management stacks including erasure coding or advanced parity RAID, replication and other functions.

    Table 1 shows relative server I/O performance of some NVM flash SSD devices across various workloads. As with any performance, the comparison takes them, and the following with a grain of salt as your speed will vary.

    8KB I/O Size

    1MB I/O size

    NAND flash SSD

    100% Seq. Read

    100% Seq. Write

    100% Ran. Read

    100% Ran. Write

    100% Seq. Read

    100% Seq. Write

    100% Ran. Read

    100% Ran. Write

    NVMe

    IOPs

    41829.19

    33349.36

    112353.6

    28520.82

    1437.26

    889.36

    1336.94

    496.74

    PCIe

    Bandwidth

    326.79

    260.54

    877.76

    222.82

    1437.26

    889.36

    1336.94

    496.74

    AiC

    Resp.

    3.23

    3.90

    1.30

    4.56

    178.11

    287.83

    191.27

    515.17

    CPU / IOP

    0.001571

    0.002003

    0.000689

    0.002342

    0.007793

    0.011244

    0.009798

    0.015098

    12Gb

    IOPs

    34792.91

    34863.42

    29373.5

    27069.56

    427.19

    439.42

    416.68

    385.9

    SAS

    Bandwidth

    271.82

    272.37

    229.48

    211.48

    427.19

    429.42

    416.68

    385.9

    Resp.

    3.76

    3.77

    4.56

    5.71

    599.26

    582.66

    614.22

    663.21

    CPU / IOP

    0.001857

    0.00189

    0.002267

    0.00229

    0.011236

    0.011834

    0.01416

    0.015548

    6Gb

    IOPs

    33861.29

    9228.49

    28677.12

    6974.32

    363.25

    65.58

    356.06

    55.86

    SATA

    Bandwidth

    264.54

    72.1

    224.04

    54.49

    363.25

    65.58

    356.06

    55.86

    Resp.

    4.05

    26.34

    4.67

    35.65

    704.70

    3838.59

    718.81

    4535.63

    CPU / IOP

    0.001899

    0.002546

    0.002298

    0.003269

    0.012113

    0.032022

    0.015166

    0.046545

    Table 1 Relative performance of various protocols and interfaces

    The workload results in table 1 were generated using a vdbench script running on a Windows 2012 R2 based server and are intended to be a relative indicator of different protocol and interfaces; your performance mileage will vary. The results shown below compare the number of IOPs (activity rate) for reads, writes, random and sequential across small 8KB and large 1MB sized I/Os.

    Also shown in table 1 are bandwidth or throughput (e.g. amount of data moved), response time and the amount of CPU used per IOP. Note in table 1 how NVMe can do higher IOPs with a lower CPU per IOP, or, using a similar amount of CPU, do more work at a lower latency. SSD has been used for decades to help reduce CPU bottlenecks or defer server upgrades by removing I/O wait times and reduce CPU consumption (e.g. wait or lost time).

    Can NVMe solutions run faster than those shown above? Absolutely!

    Where To Learn More

    View additional NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    Continue reading about NVMe with Part IV (Where and How to use NVMe) in this five-part series, or jump to Part I, Part II or Part V.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Different NVMe Configurations

    server storage I/O trends
    Updated 1/12/2018

    This is the second in a five-part mini-series providing a primer and overview of NVMe. View companion posts and more material at www.thenvmeplace.com.

    The many different faces or facets of NVMe configurations

    NVMe can be deployed and used in many ways, the following are some examples to show you its flexibility today as well as where it may be headed in the future. An initial deployment scenario is NVMe devices (e.g. PCIe cards, M2 or 8639 drives) installed as storage in servers or as back-end storage in storage systems. Figure 2 below shows a networked storage system or appliance that uses traditional server storage I/O interfaces and protocols for front-end access, however with back-end storage being all NVMe, or a hybrid of NVMe, SAS and SATA devices.
    NVMe as back-end server storage I/O interface to NVM
    Figure 2 NVMe as back-end server storage I/O interface to NVM storage

    A variation of the above is using NVMe for shared direct attached storage (DAS) such as the EMC DSSD D5. In the following scenario (figure 3), multiple servers in a rack or cabinet configuration have an extended PCIe connection that attached to a shared storage all flash array using NVMe on the front-end. Read more about this approach and EMC DSSD D5 here or click on the image below.

    EMC DSSD D5 NVMe
    Figure 3 Shared DAS All Flash NVM Storage using NVMe (e.g. EMC DSSD D5)

    Next up in figure 4 is a variation of the previous example, except NVMe is implemented over an RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) based fabric network using Converged 10GbE/40GbE or InfiniBand in what is known as RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet pronounced Rocky).

    NVMe over Fabric RoCE
    Figure 4 NVMe as a “front-end” interface for servers or storage systems/appliances

    Where To Learn More

    View additional NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    Watch for more topology and configuration options as NVMe along with associated hardware, software and I/O networking tools and technologies emerge over time.

    Continue reading about NVMe with Part III (Need for Performance Speed) in this five-part series, or jump to Part I, Part IV or Part V.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    NVMe overview primer

    server storage I/O trends
    Updated 2/2/2018

    This is the first in a five-part mini-series providing a primer and overview of NVMe. View companion posts and more material at www.thenvmeplace.com.

    What is NVM Express (NVMe)

    Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) includes persistent memory such as NAND flash and other forms Solid State Devices (SSD). NVM express (NVMe) is a new server storage I/P protocol alternative to AHCI/SATA and the SCSI protocol used by Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). Note that the name NVMe is owned and managed by the industry trade group for NVM Express is (www.nvmexpress.org).

    The key question with NVMe is not if, rather when, where, why, how and with what will it appear in your data center or server storage I/O data infrastructure. This is a companion to material that I have on my micro site www.thenvmeplace.com that provides an overview of NVMe, as well as helps to discuss some of the questions about NVMe.

    Main features of NVMe include among others:

    • Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
    • Lower CPU used to handler larger number of I/Os (more CPU available for useful work)
    • Higher I/O activity rates (IOPs) to boost productivity unlock value of fast flash and NVM
    • Bandwidth improvements leveraging various fast PCIe interface and available lanes
    • Dual-pathing of devices like what is available with dual-path SAS devices
    • Unlock the value of more cores per processor socket and software threads (productivity)
    • Various packaging options, deployment scenarios and configuration options
    • Appears as a standard storage device on most operating systems
    • Plug-play with in-box drivers on many popular operating systems and hypervisors

    Why NVMe for Server Storage I/O?
    NVMe has been designed from the ground up for accessing fast storage including flash SSD leveraging PCI Express (PCIe). The benefits include lower latency, improved concurrency, increased performance and the ability to unleash a lot more of the potential of modern multi-core modern processors.

    NVMe Server Storage I/O
    Figure 1 shows common server I/O connectivity including PCIe, SAS, SATA and NVMe.

    NVMe, leveraging PCIe, enables modern applications to reach their full potential. NVMe is one of those rare, generational protocol upgrades that comes around every couple of decades to help unlock the full performance value of servers and storage. NVMe does need new drivers, but once in place, it plugs and plays seamlessly with existing tools, software and user experiences. Likewise many of those drivers are now in the box (e.g. ship with) for popular operating systems and hypervisors.

    While SATA and SAS provided enough bandwidth for HDDs and some SSD uses, more performance is needed. NVMe near-term does not replace SAS or SATA they can and will coexist for years to come enabling different tiers of server storage I/O performance.

    NVMe unlocks the potential of flash-based storage by allowing up to 65,536 (64K) queues each with 64K commands per queue. SATA allowed for only one command queue capable of holding 32 commands per queue and SAS supports a queue with 64K command entries. As a result, the storage IO capabilities of flash can now be fed across PCIe much faster to enable modern multi-core processors to complete more useful work in less time.

    Where To Learn More

    View additional NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    Continue reading about NVMe with Part II (Different NVMe configurations) in this five-part series, or jump to Part III, Part IV or Part V.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench

    Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench


    server storage data infrastructure i/o File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench

    Updated 2/10/2018

    Need to test a server, storage I/O networking, hardware, software, services, cloud, virtual, physical or other environment that is either doing some form of file processing, or, that you simply want to have some extra workload running in the background for what ever reason? An option is File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench.

    I/O performance

    Getting Started


    Here’s a quick and relatively easy way to do it with Vdbench (Free from Oracle). Granted there are other tools, both for free and for fee that can similar things, however we will leave those for another day and post. Here’s the con to this approach, there is no Uui Gui like what you have available with some other tools Here’s the pro to this approach, its free, flexible and limited by your creative, amount of storage space, server memory and I/O capacity.

    If you need a background on Vdbench and benchmarking, check out the series of related posts here (e.g. www.storageio.com/performance).

    Get and Install the Vdbench Bits and Bytes


    If you do not already have Vdbench installed, get a copy from the Oracle or Source Forge site (now points to Oracle here).

    Vdbench is free, you simply sign-up and accept the free license, select the version down load (it is a single, common distribution for all OS) the bits as well as documentation.

    Installation particular on Windows is really easy, basically follow the instructions in the documentation by copying the contents of the download folder to a specified directory, set up any environment variables, and make sure that you have Java installed.

    Here is a hint and tip for Windows Servers, if you get an error message about counters, open a command prompt with Administrator rights, and type the command:

    $ lodctr /r


    The above command will reset your I/O counters. Note however that command will also overwrite counters if enabled so only use it if you have to.

    Likewise *nix install is also easy, copy the files, make sure to copy the applicable *nix shell script (they are in the download folder), and verify Java is installed and working.

    You can do a vdbench -t (windows) or ./vdbench -t (*nix) to verify that it is working.

    Vdbench File Processing

    There are many options with Vdbench as it has a very robust command and scripting language including ability to set up for loops among other things. We are only going to touch the surface here using its file processing capabilities. Likewise, Vdbench can run from a single server accessing multiple storage systems or file systems, as well as running from multiple servers to a single file system. For simplicity, we will stick with the basics in the following examples to exercise a local file system. The limits on the number of files and file size are limited by server memory and storage space.

    You can specify number and depth of directories to put files into for processing. One of the parameters is the anchor point for the file processing, in the following examples =S:\SIOTEMP\FS1 is used as the anchor point. Other parameters include the I/O size, percent reads, number of threads, run time and sample interval as well as output folder name for the result files. Note that unlike some tools, Vdbench does not create a single file of results, rather a folder with several files including summary, totals, parameters, histograms, CSV among others.


    Simple Vdbench File Processing Commands

    For flexibility and ease of use I put the following three Vdbench commands into a simple text file that is then called with parameters on the command line.
    fsd=fsd1,anchor=!fanchor,depth=!dirdep,width=!dirwid,files=!numfiles,size=!filesize

    fwd=fwd1,fsd=fsd1,rdpct=!filrdpct,xfersize=!fxfersize,fileselect=random,fileio=random,threads=!thrds

    rd=rd1,fwd=fwd1,fwdrate=max,format=yes,elapsed=!etime,interval=!itime

    Simple Vdbench script

    # SIO_vdbench_filesystest.txt
    #
    # Example Vdbench script for file processing
    #
    # fanchor = file system place where directories and files will be created
    # dirwid = how wide should the directories be (e.g. how many directories wide)
    # numfiles = how many files per directory
    # filesize = size in in k, m, g e.g. 16k = 16KBytes
    # fxfersize = file I/O transfer size in kbytes
    # thrds = how many threads or workers
    # etime = how long to run in minutes (m) or hours (h)
    # itime = interval sample time e.g. 30 seconds
    # dirdep = how deep the directory tree
    # filrdpct = percent of reads e.g. 90 = 90 percent reads
    # -p processnumber = optional specify a process number, only needed if running multiple vdbenchs at same time, number should be unique
    # -o output file that describes what being done and some config info
    #
    # Sample command line shown for Windows, for *nix add ./
    #
    # The real Vdbench script with command line parameters indicated by !=
    #

    fsd=fsd1,anchor=!fanchor,depth=!dirdep,width=!dirwid,files=!numfiles,size=!filesize

    fwd=fwd1,fsd=fsd1,rdpct=!filrdpct,xfersize=!fxfersize,fileselect=random,fileio=random,threads=!thrds

    rd=rd1,fwd=fwd1,fwdrate=max,format=yes,elapsed=!etime,interval=!itime

    Big Files Processing Script


    With the above script file defined, for Big Files I specify a command line such as the following.
    $ vdbench -f SIO_vdbench_filesystest.txt fanchor=S:\SIOTemp\FS1 dirwid=1 numfiles=60 filesize=5G fxfersize=128k thrds=64 etime=10h itime=30 numdir=1 dirdep=1 filrdpct=90 -p 5576 -o SIOWS2012R220_NOFUZE_5Gx60_BigFiles_64TH_STX1200_020116

    Big Files Processing Example Results


    The following is one of the result files from the folder of results created via the above command for Big File processing showing totals.


    Run totals

    21:09:36.001 Starting RD=format_for_rd1

    Feb 01, 2016 .Interval. .ReqstdOps.. ...cpu%... read ....read.... ...write.... ..mb/sec... mb/sec .xfer.. ...mkdir... ...rmdir... ..create... ...open.... ...close... ..delete...
    rate resp total sys pct rate resp rate resp read write total size rate resp rate resp rate resp rate resp rate resp rate resp
    21:23:34.101 avg_2-28 2848.2 2.70 8.8 8.32 0.0 0.0 0.00 2848.2 2.70 0.00 356.0 356.02 131071 0.0 0.00 0.0 0.00 0.1 109176 0.1 0.55 0.1 2006 0.0 0.00

    21:23:35.009 Starting RD=rd1; elapsed=36000; fwdrate=max. For loops: None

    07:23:35.000 avg_2-1200 4939.5 1.62 18.5 17.3 90.0 4445.8 1.79 493.7 0.07 555.7 61.72 617.44 131071 0.0 0.00 0.0 0.00 0.0 0.00 0.1 0.03 0.1 2.95 0.0 0.00


    Lots of Little Files Processing Script


    For lots of little files, the following is used.


    $ vdbench -f SIO_vdbench_filesystest.txt fanchor=S:\SIOTEMP\FS1 dirwid=64 numfiles=25600 filesize=16k fxfersize=1k thrds=64 etime=10h itime=30 dirdep=1 filrdpct=90 -p 5576 -o SIOWS2012R220_NOFUZE_SmallFiles_64TH_STX1200_020116

    Lots of Little Files Processing Example Results


    The following is one of the result files from the folder of results created via the above command for Big File processing showing totals.
    Run totals

    09:17:38.001 Starting RD=format_for_rd1

    Feb 02, 2016 .Interval. .ReqstdOps.. ...cpu%... read ....read.... ...write.... ..mb/sec... mb/sec .xfer.. ...mkdir... ...rmdir... ..create... ...open.... ...close... ..delete...
    rate resp total sys pct rate resp rate resp read write total size rate resp rate resp rate resp rate resp rate resp rate resp
    09:19:48.016 avg_2-5 10138 0.14 75.7 64.6 0.0 0.0 0.00 10138 0.14 0.00 158.4 158.42 16384 0.0 0.00 0.0 0.00 10138 0.65 10138 0.43 10138 0.05 0.0 0.00

    09:19:49.000 Starting RD=rd1; elapsed=36000; fwdrate=max. For loops: None

    19:19:49.001 avg_2-1200 113049 0.41 67.0 55.0 90.0 101747 0.19 11302 2.42 99.36 11.04 110.40 1023 0.0 0.00 0.0 0.00 0.0 0.00 7065 0.85 7065 1.60 0.0 0.00


    Where To Learn More

    View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    The above examples can easily be modified to do different things particular if you read the Vdbench documentation on how to setup multi-host, multi-storage system, multiple job streams to do different types of processing. This means you can benchmark a storage systems, server or converged and hyper-converged platform, or simply put a workload on it as part of other testing. There are even options for handling data footprint reduction such as compression and dedupe.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz - Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    NVMe Place NVM Non Volatile Memory Express Resources

    Updated 8/31/19
    NVMe place server Storage I/O data infrastructure trends

    Welcome to NVMe place NVM Non Volatile Memory Express Resources. NVMe place is about Non Volatile Memory (NVM) Express (NVMe) with Industry Trends Perspectives, Tips, Tools, Techniques, Technologies, News and other information.

    Disclaimer

    Please note that this NVMe place resources site is independent of the industry trade and promoters group NVM Express, Inc. (e.g. www.nvmexpress.org). NVM Express, Inc. is the sole owner of the NVM Express specifications and trademarks.

    NVM Express Organization
    Image used with permission of NVM Express, Inc.

    Visit the NVM Express industry promoters site here to learn more about their members, news, events, product information, software driver downloads, and other useful NVMe resources content.

     

    The NVMe Place resources and NVM including SCM, PMEM, Flash

    NVMe place includes Non Volatile Memory (NVM) including nand flash, storage class memories (SCM), persistent memories (PM) are storage memory mediums while NVM Express (NVMe) is an interface for accessing NVM. This NVMe resources page is a companion to The SSD Place which has a broader Non Volatile Memory (NVM) focus including flash among other SSD topics. NVMe is a new server storage I/O access method and protocol for fast access to NVM based storage and memory technologies. NVMe is an alternative to existing block based server storage I/O access protocols such as AHCI/SATA and SCSI/SAS devices commonly used for access Hard Disk Drives (HDD) along with SSD among other things.

    Server Storage I/O NVMe PCIe SAS SATA AHCI
    Comparing AHCI/SATA, SCSI/SAS and NVMe all of which can coexist to address different needs.

    Leveraging the standard PCIe hardware interface, NVMe based devices (that have an NVMe controller) can be accessed via various operating systems (and hypervisors such as VMware ESXi) with both in the box drivers or optional third-party device drivers. Devices that support NVMe can be 2.5″ drive format packaged that use a converged 8637/8639 connector (e.g. PCIe x4) coexisting with SAS and SATA devices as well as being add-in card (AIC) PCIe cards supporting x4, x8 and other implementations. Initially, NVMe is being positioned as a back-end to servers (or storage systems) interface for accessing fast flash and other NVM based devices.

    NVMe as back-end storage
    NVMe as a “back-end” I/O interface for NVM storage media

    NVMe as front-end server storage I/O interface
    NVMe as a “front-end” interface for servers or storage systems/appliances

    NVMe has also been shown to work over low latency, high-speed RDMA based network interfaces including RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) and InfiniBand (read more here, here and here involving Mangstor, Mellanox and PMC among others). What this means is that like SCSI based SAS which can be both a back-end drive (HDD, SSD, etc) access protocol and interface, NVMe can also being used for back-end can also be used as a front-end of server to storage interface like how Fibre Channel SCSI_Protocol (aka FCP), SCSI based iSCSI, SCSI RDMA Protocol via InfiniBand (among others) are used.

    NVMe features

    Main features of NVMe include among others:

    • Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
    • Lower CPU used to handle larger number of I/Os (more CPU available for useful work)
    • Higher I/O activity rates (IOPs) to boost productivity unlock value of fast flash and NVM
    • Bandwidth improvements leveraging various fast PCIe interface and available lanes
    • Dual-pathing of devices like what is available with dual-path SAS devices
    • Unlock the value of more cores per processor socket and software threads (productivity)
    • Various packaging options, deployment scenarios and configuration options
    • Appears as a standard storage device on most operating systems
    • Plug-play with in-box drivers on many popular operating systems and hypervisors

    Shared external PCIe using NVMe
    NVMe and shared PCIe (e.g. shared PCIe flash DAS)

    NVMe related content and links

    The following are some of my tips, articles, blog posts, presentations and other content, along with material from others pertaining to NVMe. Keep in mind that the question should not be if NVMe is in your future, rather when, where, with what, from whom and how much of it will be used as well as how it will be used.

    • How to Prepare for the NVMe Server Storage I/O Wave (Via Micron.com)
    • Why NVMe Should Be in Your Data Center (Via Micron.com)
    • NVMe U2 (8639) vs. M2 interfaces (Via Gamersnexus)
    • Enmotus FuzeDrive MicroTiering (StorageIO Lab Report)
    • EMC DSSD D5 Rack Scale Direct Attached Shared SSD All Flash Array Part I (Via StorageIOBlog)
    • Part II – EMC DSSD D5 Direct Attached Shared AFA (Via StorageIOBlog)
    • NAND, DRAM, SAS/SCSI & SATA/AHCI: Not Dead, Yet! (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
    • Non Volatile Memory (NVM), NVMe, Flash Memory Summit and SSD updates (Via StorageIOblog)
    • Microsoft and Intel showcase Storage Spaces Direct with NVM Express at IDF ’15 (Via TechNet)
    • MNVM Express solutions (Via SuperMicro)
    • Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Via StorageIOblog)
    • PMC-Sierra Scales Storage with PCIe, NVMe (Via EEtimes)
    • RoCE updates among other items (Via InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) December Newsletter)
    • NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
    • What should I consider when using SSD cloud? (Via SearchCloudStorage)
    • MSP CMG, Sept. 2014 Presentation (Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities – Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips)– PDF
    • Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
    • PMC Announces Flashtec NVMe SSD NVMe2106, NVMe2032 Controllers With LDPC (Via TomsITpro)
    • Exclusive: If Intel and Micron’s “Xpoint” is 3D Phase Change Memory, Boy Did They Patent It (Via Dailytech)
    • Intel & Micron 3D XPoint memory — is it just CBRAM hyped up? Curation of various posts (Via Computerworld)
    • How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do (Part I)?
    • How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? (Part II)
    • I/O Performance Issues and Impacts on Time-Sensitive Applications (Via CMG)
    • Via EnterpriseStorageForum: 5 Hot Storage Technologies to Watch
    • Via EnterpriseStorageForum: 10-Year Review of Data Storage

    Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Express (NVMe) continues to evolve as a technology for enabling and improving server storage I/O for NVM including nand flash SSD storage. NVMe streamline performance enabling more work to be done (e.g. IOPs), data to be moved (bandwidth) at a lower response time using less CPU.

    NVMe and SATA flash SSD performance

    The above figure is a quick look comparing nand flash SSD being accessed via SATA III (6Gbps) on the left and NVMe (x4) on the right. As with any server storage I/O performance comparisons there are many variables and take them with a grain of salt. While IOPs and bandwidth are often discussed, keep in mind that with the new protocol, drivers and device controllers with NVMe that streamline I/O less CPU is needed.

    Additional NVMe Resources

    Also check out the Server StorageIO companion micro sites landing pages including thessdplace.com (SSD focus), data protection diaries (backup, BC/DR/HA and related topics), cloud and object storage, and server storage I/O performance and benchmarking here.

    If you are in to the real bits and bytes details such as at device driver level content check out the Linux NVMe reflector forum. The linux-nvme forum is a good source if you are developer to stay up on what is happening in and around device driver and associated topics.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    Disclaimer

    Disclaimer: Please note that this site is independent of the industry trade and promoters group NVM Express, Inc. (e.g. www.nvmexpress.org). NVM Express, Inc. is the sole owner of the NVM Express specifications and trademarks. Check out the NVM Express industry promoters site here to learn more about their members, news, events, product information, software driver downloads, and other useful NVMe resources content.

    NVM Express Organization
    Image used with permission of NVM Express, Inc.

    Wrap Up

    Watch for updates with more content, links and NVMe resources to be added here soon.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.