Category: Standards

Going Stir Crazy? Expand Your PM Resume at These Virtual Events!

Jim Fister

We here at SNIA know that everyone is getting a tad stir crazy sitting at home. However, there are still some great opportunities to learn while you’re trying to decide which wall of the home office to face tomorrow. SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage Initative (CMSI) member company Intel is offering some excellent resources for those interested in programming persistent memory using the open-source Persistent Memory Development Kit (PMDK).

Intel is hosting a virtual forum on PMDK, along with the Storage Performance Development Kit (SPDK), and vTune Profiler tools. This is a great opportunity to meet virtually with the teams who are developing the tools as well as the community building applications. The Virtual Forum runs June 23-35, with special focus on PMDK on June 25th. There are a variety of exciting sessions all three days.

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Standards Watch: Storage Security Update

Eric Hibbard Leave a comment

The world of storage security standards continues to evolve. In fact, it can be hard to keep up with all that’s happening. Here’s a quick recap of SNIA’s involvement and impact on some notable storage security work – past, present and future.

The Storage Security ISO/IEC 27040 standard provides security techniques and detailed technical guidance on how organizations can define an appropriate level of risk mitigation by employing a well-proven and consistent approach to the planning, design, documentation, and implementation of data storage security. SNIA has been a key industry advocate of this standard by providing many of the concepts and best practices dating back to 2006. Recently, the SNIA Storage Security Technical Work Group (TWG) authored a series of white papers that explored a range of topics covered by the ISO/IEC 27040 standard. 

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Feedback Needed on New Persistent Memory Performance White Paper

Marty Foltyn

A new SNIA Technical Work draft is now available for public review and comment – the SNIA Persistent Memory Performance Test Specification (PTS) White Paper.

A companion to the SNIA NVM Programming Model, the SNIA PM PTS White Paper (PM PTS WP) focuses on describing the relationship between traditional block IO NVMe SSD based storage and the migration to Persistent Memory block and byte addressable storage.

The PM PTS WP reviews the history and need for storage performance benchmarking beginning with Hard Disk Drive corner case stress tests, the increasing gap between CPU/SW/HW Stack performance and storage performance, and the resulting need for faster storage tiers and storage
products.

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Take the Leap to SMI-S Version 1.8.0

SNIA Storage Management Blog
If you’re a storage equipment or management software vendor that uses SNIA’s Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) as the storage management interface for your solution, you’re not alone. First introduced in 2004, SMI-S has been used in over 1,350 storage products by some of the largest vendors in the industry. It defines a secure and reliable interface that can be used to discover, monitor, and control the physical and logical devices in enterprise storage area networks. Unlike proprietary management interfaces, SMI-S is a standard interface that allows management applications to reliably support a wider range of storage equipment from multiple vendors. Read More

SNIA at Flash Memory Summit 2019 – Your Guide Here!

Marty Foltyn

SNIA technical work and education advances will play a prominent role in the program at the 2019 Flash Memory Summit, August 5-8, 2019, in Santa Clara, CA.  Over 40 speakers will present on key standards activities and education initiatives, including the first ever FMS Persistent Memory Hackathon hosted by SNIA.  Check out your favorite technology (or all), and learn what SNIA is doing in these sessions:

SNIA-At-A-Glance

  • •SNIA Solid State Storage Reception
    Monday, August 5, 5:30 pm, Room 209/210
  • •SNIA Standards mainstage presentation by Michael Oros, SNIA Executive Director
    Tuesday, August 6, 2:50 pm, Mission City Ballroom
  • •Beer and Pizza with SNIA Experts on Persistent Memory/NVDIMM, Remote Persistent Memory/Open Fabrics, SNIA Swordfish, and more
    Tuesday, August 6, 7:15 pm – 9:00 pm, Ballrooms A-C
  • •SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative booth #820 featuring Persistent Memory demos and Performance, Computational Storage, and SNIA Swordfish discussions
    Tuesday, August 6, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm; Wednesday August 7, Noon to 7 pm; and Thursday, August 8, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm, Exhibit Hall

Persistent Memory

  • SNIA Persistent Memory Programming Tutorial and Introduction to the FMS Persistent Memory Hackathon hosted by SNIA
    Learn how programming persistent memory works and get started on your own “hacks”
    Monday, August 5, 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m, Room 209/210
  • •Persistent Memory Hackathon hosted by SNIA
    Bring your laptop and drop by anytime over the two days. SNIA persistent memory experts will support software developers in a live coding exercise to better understand the various tiers and modes of persistent memory and explore existing best practices.
    Tuesday, August 6 and Wednesday August 7, 8:30 am – 7:00 pm, Great America Ballroom Foyer
  • •Persistent Memory Track sessions sponsored by SNIA, JEDEC, and Open Fabrics Alliance
    See experts speak on Advances in Persistent Memory and PM Software and Applications in sessions PMEM-101-1 and PMEM-102-1
    Tuesday, August 6, 8:30 am – 10:50 am in Ballroom E and 3:40 pm – 6:00 pm, in Great America Ballroom J
  • •Persistent Memory Track sessions sponsored by SNIA, JEDEC, and Open Fabrics Alliance
    The track continues with sessions on Remote Persistent Memory and the latest research in the field in sessions PMEM-201-1 and PMEM-202-1
    Wednesday, August 7, 8:30 am – 10:50 am and 3:20 pm – 5:45 pm, Great America Meeting Room 3

Computational Storage

  • •Don’t miss the first ever Computational Storage track at FMS. This SNIA sponsored day features expert presentations and panels on Controllers and Technology, Deploying Solutions, Implementation Methods and Applications.(COMP-301A-1; COMP-301B-1; COMP-302A-1; COMP-302B-1)
    Thursday, August 8, 8:30 am – 10:50 am and 3:20 pm – 5:45 pm, in Ballroom A

Form Factors

  • •Learn what the SFF TA Technical Work Group has been doing in the session New Enterprise and Data Center SSD Form Factors (SSDS-201B-1)
    Wednesday, August 7, 9:45 am -10:50 am, in Great America Ballroom K

SNIA Swordfish

  • •Hear an update on Storage Management with Swordfish APIs for Open-Channel SSDs in session SOFT-201-1
    Wednesday, August 7, 9:45 am -10:50 am, in Ballroom F

Object Drives

  • •Learn about Standardization for a Key Value Interface Underway at NVM Express and SNIA in session NVME-201-1
    Wednesday, August 7,8:30 am – 9:35 am, in Great America Meeting Room 2

SNIA LTFS Format – New Version with Improved Capacity Efficiency

Diane Marsili Leave a comment

The SNIA Linear Tape File System (LTFS) Technical Work Group (TWG) is excited to announce that the new version of LTFS Format Specification has just been approved.  LTFS provides an industry standard format for recording data on modern magnetic tape. LTFS is a file system that allows those stored files to be accessed in a similar fashion to those on disk or removable flash drives.

The SNIA standard, also known as an ISO standard ISO/IEC 20919:2016, defines the LTFS Format requirements for interchanged media that claims LTFS compliance. Those requirements are specified as the size and sequence of data blocks and file marks on the media, the content and form of special data constructs (the LTFS Label and LTFS Index), and the content of the partition labels and use of MAM parameters.

The data content (not the physical media) of the LTFS format shall be interchangeable among all data storage systems claiming conformance to this format. Physical media interchange is dependent on compatibility of physical media and the media access devices in use.

SNIA on Storage sat down with Takeshi Ishimoto, Co-Chair of the SNIA LTFS Technical Work Group, to learn what it all means.

Q. What is this standard all about? Read More

New Capability in Familiar Places

Marty Foltyn
When it comes to persistent memory, many application developers initially think of change as hard work that likely yields incremental result.  It’s perhaps a better idea to look at the capability that’s new, but that’s already easily accessible using the methods that are in place today.  It’s not that enabling persistent memory is effortless, it’s more that normal code improvement can take advantage of the new features in the standard course of development. The concept of multiple memory tiers is ingrained in nearly every programming model.  While the matrix of possibility can get fairly complex, it’s worth looking at three variables of the memory model.  The first is the access type, either via load/store or block operation. The second is the latency or distance from the processing units; in this case the focus would be on the DIMM.  The last would be memory persistence. Read More

Remote Persistent Memory: It Takes a Village (or Perhaps a City)

Marty Foltyn
By Paul Grun, Chair, OpenFabrics Alliance and Senior Technologist, Cray, Inc. Remote Persistent Memory, (RPM), is rapidly emerging as an important new technology. But understanding a new technology, and grasping its significance, requires engagement across a wide range of industry organizations, companies, and individuals. It takes a village, as they say. Technologies that are capable of bending the arc of server architecture come along only rarely. It’s sometimes hard to see one coming because it can be tough to discern between a shiny new thing, an insignificant evolution in a minor technology, and a serious contender for the Technical Disrupter of the Year award. Remote Persistent Memory is one such technology, the ultimate impact of which is only now coming into view. Read More

Accelerating the Adoption of Next-Generation Storage Technologies

Michael Oros Leave a comment

Introduction to the Storage Networking Industry Association

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is the largest storage industry association in existence, and one of the largest in IT. It is comprised of over 170 leading industry organizations, and 2,500 contributing members that serve more than 50,000 IT and storage professionals worldwide.

During the nineties, the nascent storage networking field needed a strong voice to communicate the value of storage area networks (SANs) and the Fibre Channel (FC) protocol. SNIA emerged in 1997 when a handful of storage experts realized that there was a need for a unified voice and vendor-neutral education on these emerging technologies to ensure that storage networks became feature complete, interoperable and trusted solutions across the IT landscape.

Since then, SNIA has earned a reputation for developing technologies that have emerged as industry standards. There standards relate to data, storage and information management, and address such challenges as interoperability, usability, complexity and security. Read More

The OpenFabrics Alliance and the Pursuit of Efficient Access to Persistent Memory over Fabrics

Marty Foltyn
  Guest Columnist:  Paul Grun, Advanced Technology Development, Cray, Inc. and Vice-Chair, Open Fabrics Alliance (OFA) Earlier this year, SNIA hosted its one-day Persistent Memory Summit in San Jose; it was my pleasure to be invited to participate by delivering a presentation on behalf of the OpenFabrics Alliance.  Check it out here. The day long Summit program was chock full of deeply technical, detailed information about the state of the art in persistent memory technology coupled with previews of some possible future directions this exciting technology could conceivably take.  The Summit played to a completely packed house, including an auxiliary room equipped with a remote video feed.  Quite the event! But why would the OpenFabrics Alliance (the OFA) be offering a presentation at a Persistent Memory (PM) Summit, you ask?  Fabrics!  Which just happens to be the OFA’s forte. Read More