Brian invited Genius Lab Guy Kevin O’Brien to step out of his comfort zone and answer burning questions from the community and a few topics pulled from social media.

Brian invited Genius Lab Guy Kevin O’Brien to step out of his comfort zone and answer burning questions from the community and a few topics pulled from social media.

Kevin has been with StorageReview.com for over 11 years, with his first role as a Managing Editor, directing the Enterprise Test Lab and finding ways to test the next generation of storage devices in new and challenging ways. He would step out of the lab and put on his managing editor hat to review content for our site’s enterprise and consumer sections. After a couple of years in the managing editor role, Kevin moved to Lab director overseeing the day-to-day operations of the StorageReview.com Test Lab, building company relationships to grow lab resources, and researching new testing methodology to incorporate into reviews.

In addition to running the lab, performing evaluations, developing test scenarios, and working with vendors, Kevin takes time to review some of the content for technical accuracy before it gets published.

Kevin rarely goes one-on-one with Brian, so give this one a view.

00:00 Introduction

02:00 Question #1

11:00 Question #2

14:00 Question #3

17:00 Question #4

20:00 Question #5

28:00 Question #6

33:00 Wrap-up

Let us know if you like this format, and we will do more in the future.

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The post Podcast #107: Q and A From The Lab With Kevin OBrien appeared first on StorageReview.com.

Brian calls on Wayne Duso, Vice President, AWS Storage, Edge, and Data Governance, to join him in this podcast and talk about data transfer and the power of the AWS “Snow” offerings. You might be amazed at the computational power, not just data transfer capabilities, that’s available within the Snow family.

Brian calls on Wayne Duso, Vice President, AWS Storage, Edge, and Data Governance, to join him in this podcast and talk about data transfer and the power of the AWS “Snow” offerings. You might be amazed at the computational power, not just data transfer capabilities, that’s available within the Snow family.

Wayne describes himself as a curious and articulate entrepreneur, investor, pioneer, builder, and leader who’s passionate about sponsoring rising-leaders, building teams, launching products, and growing businesses that deliver highly disruptive value for customers and benefit the communities I have the privilege of serving.

As a long-time Amazon employee (he’s been there almost ten years) and AWS contributor, Wayne has a deep understanding of AWS products, especially where it concerns data movement and storage.

Snowcone on the ISS

AWS and Axiom Space are collaborating on developing a more efficient way to analyze data from Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) via AWS Snowcone SSD. AWS Snowcone is a small, rugged, and secure device offering edge computing, data storage, and data transfer on the go in an austere environment with little or no connectivity. Ax-1 is the first of several private space missions to ISS planned by Axiom Space, with the ultimate goal of building the first commercial space station.

We ran an article in June that described the collaboration between Amazon and Axiom Space Remotely Operate AWS Snowcone on the International Space Station (ISS). We also have a video of the Snowcone setup on our Instagram page.

More information on AWS Snow products can be found on AWS Snow Family.

This is a very informative discussion with plenty of detail about AWS’s Snow products, Edge Data, and Data Transfer options. If you want to skip around, the timestamps are listed below.

Timestamp

00:00 Introduction

05:00 How it works

10:00 Outposts and Snow

15:00 Transforming business to Edge Compute

20:00 Filtering services

25:00 Hardware design principles

30:00 Management

35:00 How to connect Snowmobile to the datacenter

40:00 Running Snowcone on ISS

45:00 Security

46:00 Wrap up

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The post #106: AWS Snow Family Deep Dive appeared first on StorageReview.com.

Storagereview.com has always had a strong relationship with Supermicro with engagements in hardware testing, integration, and multi-vendor environments. There seems to be a Supermicro server somewhere in the lab. Supermicro has been at the forefront of hardware and software development innovation.

Storagereview.com has always had a strong relationship with Supermicro with engagements in hardware testing, integration, and multi-vendor environments. There seems to be a Supermicro server somewhere in the lab. Supermicro has been at the forefront of hardware and software development innovation.

This week, Brian invited Supermicro’s Michael McNerney to discuss the company’s vision for the future and a look in the rearview mirror. Michael is Vice President of Marketing and Network Security with Supermicro, so he is well-positioned to discuss what Supermicro’s vision is for the future and how technology drives the development of data center servers and edge markets.

The discussion on this podcast covers hardware and software, how it affects server design, private-cloud versus public-cloud, and what drives innovation. Michael brings his deep knowledge of the server environment and discusses Supermicro’s continued innovation path.

The timestamp for each section is found below if you want to hop around.

00:00 Introduction

05:00 Modernizing

10:00 New form factors

15:00 Applications dictating system design

20:00 On-premise cloud architecture

25:00 Addressing complexity

30:00 Serviceability at the edge

35:00 Cooling

40:00 Latest Vision

45:00 Wrap up and closing

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The post Podcast #105: Infrastructure Trends from Edge to Core appeared first on StorageReview.com.

Brian gets Curtis Anderson of Panasas to join him for a deep and detailed view of HPC. Curtis is the Software Architect at Panasas and co-chair of the MLCommons Storage Working Group. What is MLCommons Storage Working Group? MLCommons is an industry consortium working to accelerate machine learning and increase its positive impact on society. It publishes several standards for the performance of AI/ML models, among other things. As one of the co-chairs, Curtis defines standard(s) for evaluating the performance of storage subsystems that feed AI/ML environments.

Brian gets Curtis Anderson of Panasas to join him for a deep and detailed view of HPC. Curtis is the Software Architect at Panasas and co-chair of the MLCommons Storage Working Group. What is MLCommons Storage Working Group? MLCommons is an industry consortium working to accelerate machine learning and increase its positive impact on society. It publishes several standards for the performance of AI/ML models, among other things. As one of the co-chairs, Curtis defines standard(s) for evaluating the performance of storage subsystems that feed AI/ML environments.

As a Software Architect at Panasas, Curtis coordinates all the technology teams in the Sunnyvale office: Platform, OSD (Object Storage Device), CLI/GUI Management, NFS and CIFS gateway, and interfacing to the hardware and QA teams. He also gets to write code again(!).

The market for scale-out storage with a commercial feature set is growing rapidly, and competitors like NetApp have the commercial feature set but haven’t been able to master scale-out. Panasas has 15 years of scale-out performance and the resiliency everyone wants but needs the commercial feature set that some commercial players have.

Brian digs deep into the technology and asks Curtis to explain use cases and the software structure, where Panasas fits in the overall market and their new flash systems.

This is a great podcast; if HPC is of interest, you should give this a listen. It’s only 45 minutes, but if you want to jump around, we have put some timestamps below:

00:00 Intro

05:00 How Panasas systems work

10:00 Software structure

15:00 How it handles multiple HPC projects

20:00 How M&E works

25:00 Costs

30:00 How to set up a smaller company for HPC

35:00 Edge Placement

40:00 Environmental impact

45:00 How to engage Panasas

Closing and wrap-up

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The post Podcast #104: The Latest on HPC and Scale-Out Storage appeared first on StorageReview.com.

There has been a lot of buzz around liquid cooling, especially when discussing performance degradation when chips overheat. Liquid cooling technology is a successful solution to keeping components cool and operating at peak performance.

There has been a lot of buzz around liquid cooling, especially when discussing performance degradation when chips overheat. Liquid cooling technology is a successful solution to keeping components cool and operating at peak performance.

StorageReview.com has covered the progress and acceptance of this technology with much focus on GPUs, but it goes deeper. So, while attending Dell Technologies World 2022, Brian was given a chance to look closely at some of the solutions TMGcore had on display. We posted a few short videos from the event, which garnered a lot of conversation. The technology was impressive, so Brian reached out to Taylor Monnig, Chief Operating Officer at TMGcore, to join him for an in-depth discussion on immersion cooling.

TMGcore is focused on developing advanced immersion cooling and has developed a suite of products that includes both hardware and software solutions. Located in Plano, the tech hub of Texas, TMGcore has its fingers in all major technologies like HPC, AI &Machine Learning, Edge, Cloud, Gaming, Government, and more. Taylor takes Brian through liquid cooling options, challenges facing air-cooling, and the paradigm shift to liquid cooling. Taylor also talks about server and card design to support liquid cooling and the differences between the liquids used in the immersion technology.

This is an in-depth discussion with someone who understands and believes in the technology. This emerging technology continues to gain traction, and this podcast provides excellent detail from a company dedicated to immersion cooling.

Social Videos:

If you don’t have time to watch the podcast in its entirety, you can jump to the sections that are most interesting to you by checking the timestamps below.

Timestamp

00:00  Introduction

05:00  Challenges

10:00  TMGcore Servers

15:00  Impacts

20:00  Servicing

25:00  Markets

30:00  Costs

35:00  Data Center designs

40:00  Edge

45:00  Deployments

50:00  Wrap up!

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The post Podcast #103: A Deep Dive on Immersion Cooling appeared first on StorageReview.com.

Pure Storage kicked off Pure//Accelerate techfest22 earlier this month in Los Angeles, and that gave Brian a chance to catch up with Dan Kogan, Vice President, Product Management and Product Marketing at Pure Storage. Dan leads product management for new business, cloud, and the as-a-Service group within Pure’s FlashArray BU, along with leading FlashArray’s overall product marketing team.

Pure Storage kicked off Pure//Accelerate techfest22 earlier this month in Los Angeles, and that gave Brian a chance to catch up with Dan Kogan, Vice President, Product Management and Product Marketing at Pure Storage. Dan leads product management for new business, cloud, and the as-a-Service group within Pure’s FlashArray BU, along with leading FlashArray’s overall product marketing team.

Pure unveiled several new and rebranded products during the event. StorageReview.com posted the news as it happened. You can read more about the key announcements for the Expanded Evergreen Portfolio, the FlashBlade//S, and AIRI//S AI-Ready Infrastructure. Pure Storage has been busy, and these announcements are just the beginning.

There is a focus on as-a-Service offerings, strengthening partnerships with NVIDIA, and launching the FlashBlade//S. Dan has his hand in many of the new initiatives within Pure Storage.

Brian has questions about the new announcements, what’s next, cloud deliverables, and more. This very informative podcast offers insights into the direction Pure Storage is taking for the future.

The last few minutes of the video were lost, but the audio was preserved.

Please give it a listen, or skip around using the timestamps below.

00:00  Introduction

05:00  Cloud focus

10:00  Educating the masses

15:00 Pure//Accelerate techfest22

20:00  History

25:00  Pricing and Chargeback

30:00  Where is everyone going?

35:00  What are those charges?

(video lost)

40:00  Portworx

46:00  Wrap-up!

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The post Podcast #102: Dan Kogan, Product Focus at Pure//Accelerate techfest22 appeared first on StorageReview.com.

This week, Brian connected with Eaton’s Global Connectivity Product Manager, James Martin, to talk about managing the products that Eaton builds. James has been with Eaton for over ten years and brings his product management skills and deep understanding of the importance of cybersecurity. Eaton has a significant portfolio of software management tools to help customers with disaster avoidance, data center infrastructure management, and demand response management, and has been delivering a mobile app, Control Xpert, helping manage those PDUs from anywhere.

This week, Brian connected with Eaton’s Global Connectivity Product Manager, James Martin, to talk about managing the products that Eaton builds. James has been with Eaton for over ten years and brings his product management skills and deep understanding of the importance of cybersecurity. Eaton has a significant portfolio of software management tools to help customers with disaster avoidance, data center infrastructure management, and demand response management, and has been delivering a mobile app, Control Xpert, helping manage those PDUs from anywhere.

Building intelligence into the PDU makes sense, but it is generally overlooked with all the cyber attacks directed at servers and systems. However, hacking into a PDU and shutting down entire racks can prove devastating. File corruption, getting systems back online, and bringing power back to a normal state can take hours, which could turn into days. This is just another example of ransomware attackers controlling your server environment.

It is an interesting conversation and should get you thinking about protecting your data all the way to the plug.

Take a look at this podcast to gain insight into how Eaton is working to protect the data center.

00:00  Introduction

05:00  Gathering information

10:00  Power devices are becoming a desirable target

15:00  What is the threat?

20:00  Integration and automation

25:00 Types of probes

30:00  Next steps

35:00  Eaton is making power more visible

40:00  Wrap up.  https://youtu.be/dPo_inalXfw

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The post Podcast #101: James Martin Talks About Adding Intelligence to Infrastructure appeared first on StorageReview.com.

While Brian was in Las Vegas attending Dell Technologies World at the beginning of May, he visited with Caitlin Gordon to have a conversation about products, direction, growth, and generally catch up. Caitlin is Dell Technologies Vice President of Product Management and had plenty of insight into the path of Dell’s product lineup. She spoke to as-a-Service offerings but also addressed questions regarding some hardware refreshes and all else of what’s new at Dell Technologies World 2022.

While Brian was in Las Vegas attending Dell Technologies World at the beginning of May, he visited with Caitlin Gordon to have a conversation about products, direction, growth, and generally catch up. Caitlin is Dell Technologies Vice President of Product Management and had plenty of insight into the path of Dell’s product lineup. She spoke to as-a-Service offerings but also addressed questions regarding some hardware refreshes and all else of what’s new at Dell Technologies World 2022.

Caitlin and Brian have worked together for many years, so this conversation was very relaxed and informative. Caitlin touched on cyber threats, Ransomware, the impact on customers, and hardware updates for PowerFlex, PowerStore, and PowerMax. There was also a discussion around mobile cloud and Project Alpine.

Dell Technologies World 2022 News

This is a relatively short podcast and well worth the time. There should be something for everyone to gain some insight into Dell’s future. The timestamp is listed below.

00:00  Introduction

05:00  Mobile Cloud offerings

10:00  How will cloud impact Dell’s product model

15:00  High capacity drives

20:00  Looking forward

25:00 Edge data continued

Wrap up

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The post Podcast #100: Dell Technologies World Highlights with Caitlin Gordon appeared first on StorageReview.com.

While in Raleigh recently, Brian had a chance to visit Lenovo and talk to Scott Tease about HPC, Liquid Cooling, and F1 racing. Scott is currently Vice President, General Manager HPC and AI WW at Lenovo, but has been in the HPC world for many years. He has been with Lenovo, through System X, for almost 8 years and prior to that 14 years with IBM.

While in Raleigh recently, Brian had a chance to visit Lenovo and talk to Scott Tease about HPC, Liquid Cooling, and F1 racing. Scott is currently Vice President, General Manager HPC and AI WW at Lenovo, but has been in the HPC world for many years. He has been with Lenovo, through System X, for almost 8 years and prior to that 14 years with IBM.

Lenovo Liquid Cooled 1U Servers

Brian’s guests are always knowledgeable and passionate about the technology they support and Scott is no exception. In fact, it would be unkind to limit his passion to HPC when he is truly concerned with the environment, energy consumption, efficiency, and helping customers get the most from the available technology offered. You can hear it in his descriptions, explaining how the right technology can help with controlling our carbon footprint.

The conversation covered everything from what is currently happening with Lenovo, specifically HPC, moving into the enterprise space, liquid cooling versus air cooling and why that matters, and what is forcing this trend. It is an intelligent view of where we are technically and how the move to liquid cooling will drive down costs for the future. Definitely a podcast worth watching or just listening in.

If you don’t have time to attend the entire 45-minute podcast, we have timestamped the conversation below. Skip around if you like.

Minute

00:00  Brian’s introduction

05:00  What is the main purpose for HPC

10:00  Liquid cooling

15:00  Power/Environment/Benefits

20:00  Home gaming

25:00  Where it’s headed

30:00  Partnering

35:00  Impact of design

40:00  Use of Schedulers

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The post Podcast #99: Lenovo Discusses the Benefits of Liquid Cooling appeared first on StorageReview.com.