1. G2M Research NVMe All-Flash Array (AFA) Panel Webinar March 6, 2018

2. Webinar Agenda: 152 Attendees, 505 Registrants
9:00-9:02 Introductory Remarks, Introduction of Panelists (Mike Heumann) 9:02-9:10 What is an All-Flash Array (AFA), and Why is NVMe Important for AFAs (Mike Heumann) 9:11-9:20 Panelist Question #1 9:21-9:23 Survey Question #1 9:24-9:33 Panelist Question #2 9:34-9:36 Survey Question #2 9:37-9:46 Panelist Question #3 9:47-9:49 Survey Question #3 9:50-9:59 Panelist Question #4 10:00-10:12 Audience Q&A 10:13-10:15 Closing remarks (Mike Heumann)

3. Panelists Host/Emcee: Taufik Ma CEO Attala Systems
Julie Herd
Director, Tech Marketing
E8 Storage
Eyal David
CTO
Kaminario
VR Satish
CTO
Pavilion Data Systems
Narayan Venkat
VP, Data Center Systems
Tegile (Western Digital)
Mike Heumann
Managing Partner
G2M Research
Host/Emcee:

4. Storage Arrays vs Storage Appliances
What is a storage array?
An integrated system sold by the manufacturer as a complete solution
Entire solution is supported directly by the manufacturer (“one throat to choke”)
How does an array differ from scale-out flash storage (SOFS) software running on a storage appliance or a server?
SOFS plus servers or storage appliances typically are integrated by a disti or SI
Support can often be a challenge (who do I go to – my HW or my SW provider?)
The level of storage expertise required by customer may be greater

5. How Have Flash, NVMe, and 100Gb Ethernet Changed the Storage Landscape?
Flash has significantly reduced the storage media latency
Reduced the need for huge RAM buffers, and eliminated the need to short-stroke hard disk drives
NVMe has further accelerated this trend
Does this reduce the importance of array controllers?
Increases in Ethernet speed has impacted the advantages of Fibre Channel for SANs
100GbE plus RoCE reduces latency and jitter
Result: More storage array controllers are now based on X86 architectures, and less on ASICs, FPGAs, or other custom hardware vs

6. The Evolution of Storage Arrays
Form Factors
Historically storage arrays were multi-rack systems connected to director-class FC switches
Storage arrays today are disaggregated, networked systems that separate controllers and media enclosures
Data Management and Protection
One of the most important historical capabilities of storage arrays was data protection
While data protection is still important, security, compliance and quality of service are just as important
Integration with the Cloud/Supporting the Cloud
Many customers use both on-premises and cloud storage
Additionally, many storage systems are designed to support cloud-based business organizations

7. Storage Arrays: Important Questions for Users
What is your use case for an AFA system (or for an NVMe-based AFA deployment)?
As you migrate existing applications from HDD-based systems to flash, can you consolidate your storage systems?
Is the ability to integrate cloud storage into your storage pool important, and how will you use the cloud storage?
Are your ROI expectations realistic?

8. Panel Question #1
NVMe really started appearing in production all-flash arrays (AFAs) in Since then, several major companies in the storage array market have announced NVMe-based arrays. Do you see NVMe as simply a higher-performance option for AFAs, or as the flash media that will eventually become ubiquitous for AFAs?
Tegile
Kaminario
E8 Storage
Pavilion Data Systems
Attala Systems

9. Audience Survey Question #1
Has your organization deployed or planning to deploy all-flash arrays in the near future? (check one; 89 responses):
We currently have all-flash arrays deployed in our organization: 34%
We are planning on deploying all-flash arrays within the next 12 months: 10%
We are planning on deploying all-flash arrays between 12 months and 24 months from now: 2%
We are evaluating deployment of all-flash arrays for our business, but we have not made a decision to do so yet: 9%
We currently do not have a use case to deploy all-flash arrays in our organization: 15%
I am unsure of my organization’s plans to deploy AFAs: 31%

10. Panel Question #2
There are many on the software side of the storage industry who say that the concept of storage arrays is becoming obsolete due to the scale-out capabilities of storage appliances/servers, scale-out flash software, and the performance of NVMe flash. How do you see storage arrays evolving to meet these conditions, and what are the advantages of arrays over software-defined storage?
Kaminario
E8 Storage
Pavilion Data Systems
Attala Systems
Tegile

11. Audience Survey Question #2
How important do you think that support for NVMe flash media is in an all-flash array? (check one; 96 responses):
Extremely important – NVMe will become ubiquitous in enterprise all-flash arrays: 49%
Important – NVMe flash-based arrays will be used in performance-focused high-end arrays: 31%
Not Important – Most storage users can’t take advantage of flash performance, let alone NVMe flash performance: 6%
Unsure – I don’t have the information to answer: 6%
No Opinion: 7%

12. Panel Question #3
Will NVMe over Fabric become the predominant interface for all-flash arrays, or just one of many interfaces supported by NVMe AFAs?
E8 Storage
Pavilion Data Systems
Attala Systems
Tegile
Kaminario

13. Audience Survey Question #3
What use cases are the most compelling to you for NVMe- based all-flash arrays? (check all that apply):
Shared block storage: 53%
Shared object storage: 28%
Shared file storage: 24%
Database clusters (including in-memory databases): 33%
Big Data/analytics application clusters: 53%
High Performance Computing (HPC) storage: 46%
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) storage: 36%
Media/Imaging storage (including media workflows): 19%
Other: 10%
None: 1%

14. Panel Question #4
What do you see as the most compelling use cases for NVMe- based all-flash arrays?
Pavilion Data Systems
Attala Systems
Tegile
Kaminario
E8 Storage

15. Audience Q&A

16. Condensed Panelist Answers to Q&A Section
You spoke about RoCE; what about iWARP? Also, which will be the “big one” for RDMA (IB, RoCE, iWARP)? There are several NVMe over Fabric (NVMe-oF) protocols, including NVMe-oRoCE, NVMe-oiWARP, NVMe-oTCP, NVMe-oFC, and NVMe-oIB. All of these have their use cases and issues. Today, NVMe-oRoCE is the most widely deployed, but it is too early to “call” the eventual winner.
IBM Storage has stated that they don’t need NVMe SSDs. Are there alternatives to NVMe SSDs/what are the downsides of not using NVMe? The simple fact is that SAS/SATA SSDs are just slower than NVMe SSDs, regardless of what ASIC or FPGA technology you put in front of them. IBM also said several years ago that they did not need flash…
Is consumer use of NVMe flash driving down NVMe prices? When do you think that NVMe pricing will equal that of SAS/SATA? The short answer is “yes”; the consumer market is helping drive down NVMe prices. NVMe has reached parity with SAS/SATA in the hyperscale market for M.2 drives, and should reach overall parity this year.

17. Condensed Panelist Answers to Q&A Section
Will it be important for AFAs to support both NVMe-oFC and NVMe-oIP protocols? Panel consensus is “yes”. Customers tend to change their fabrics very slowly. When AFAs first came out, they tended to be IP-only, but since then most AFAs have supported both IP and FC interfaces; same can be expected for NVMe-oF.
What are NVMe’s benefits for software defined storage vs all-flash arrays? Also, how does NVMe SDS/AFA performance compare to that of NVMe DAS? Both SDSs and AFAs benefit from NVMe, though arrays that are designed around NVMe are best placed to make the most use of NVMe’s low latency.
IP was not build for storage; are special IP switches needed for storage networking? If NVMe-oRoCE is utilized as the NVMe-oF protocol, then IP switches capable of Data Center Bridging (DCB) are required.
How does NVMe-oF guarantee end-to-end integrity? Storage end-to-end integrity is guaranteed by a variety of methods, including at the NVMe-oF protocol level, at the IP level, and at the storage level.
How many NVMe drives can a server support? This depends significantly on the use case. A handful of NVMe drives running at 100% throughput can completely utilize a PCIe bus, which is the weak link. However, this is generally not a realistic use case.

18. Thank You For Attending