#232 – Building Power-Efficient Storage Systems with Justin Emerson from Pure Storage (Sponsored)

Storage Unpacked Podcast

English - May 19, 2022 11:00 - 50 minutes - 45.8 MB - ★★★★★ - 21 ratings
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Previous Episode: #231 – Introducing Infinidat InfiniBox SSA II (Sponsored)

Next Episode: #233 – Introduction to the VAST Data Ceres Hardware Platform with Jeff Denworth (Sponsored)

In this episode, Chris talks to Justin Emerson from Pure Storage about modern design considerations for power-efficient storage. The cost of powering data centres has increased massively over the last 12 months, driven by the global economy and recovery from COVID-19. At a component level, servers are increasing their power usage, with faster processors and memory, plus the use of power-hungry GPUs. By contrast, storage power demands have reduced, as flash takes over from HDDs. Of course, this doesn't mean there aren't still considerations to make. Vendors such as Pure Storage have developed custom flash modules and introduced other design features to optimise on performance per watt, while deliver increasing densities. Justin explains how Pure has achieved this and what we should look out for in the future.

We discuss the Pure ESG report, which can be found here - https://www.purestorage.com/company/corporate-social-responsibility.html. Justin also mentions the Accelerate TechFest event on 8th June 2022, more details are available here - https://www.purestorage.com/accelerate.html.

Elapsed Time: 00:50:03

Timeline

00:00:00 - Intros

00:01:30 - Power costs are driving the need for efficiency

00:02:30 - Power is the limiting factor on data centre design

00:03:40 - Flash generations implicitly drive power efficiencies

00:04:30 - Higher clock speeds drive higher power usage

00:06:15 - What are the hyper-scalers doing with power efficiency?

00:07:10 - Cooling is also a big efficiency factor

00:08:05 - HDDs are still hugely relevant for hyper-scalers

00:10:10 - Can businesses hedge power costs for their data centres?

00:12:35 - If you’re in a co-lo, power costs could be unpredictable

00:14:30 - In-data centre power management is creating challenges

00:17:05 - Pure has released an ESG report including power efficiency

00:18:35 - Product longevity is important to sustainability

00:20:30 - Evergreen and product design allows Pure to reduce waste

00:23:15 - What is DirectFlash?

00:26:00 - Commodity drives have DRAM and make independent decisions

00:28:05 - Couldn’t I just use the Ruler form factor?

00:30:00 - FlashArray//C uses QLC - is this more power-efficient?

00:33:42 - What software enhancements are used to increase efficiency?

00:36:00 - Data reduction features need to balance write amplification with efficiency

00:38:10 - How do end-users make decisions about picking the right products?

00:40:15 - There are no recognised metrics for measuring storage power/performance efficiency

00:44:30 - What future improvements should we expect?

00:46:50 - Code and protocol efficiency will improve power usage

00:48:15 - Wrap Up

Related Podcasts & Blogs

#228 - Exploiting Data in the Third Wave of IT Agility with Murli Thirumale

#209 - Discovering Unified Fast File and Object with Pure Storage

#211 - Pure//Launch - Announcing Fusion and Portworx Data Services

#199 - Quantifying Data Storage Innovation

Pure Storage Introduces FlashArray//XL

Pure//Launch - Pure Storage Announces Fusion and Portworx Data Services

Justin's Bio

Justin Emerson is a Technical Evangelist at Pure Storage focused on the FlashBlade product portfolio. He joined Pure in 2020 as a FlashBlade Data Architect for the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to that, he worked at storage-focused reseller partners for more than a decade.

In this episode, Chris talks to Justin Emerson from Pure Storage about modern design considerations for power-efficient storage. The cost of powering data centres has increased massively over the last 12 months, driven by the global economy and recovery from COVID-19. At a component level, servers are increasing their power usage, with faster processors and memory, plus the use of power-hungry GPUs. By contrast, storage power demands have reduced, as flash takes over from HDDs. Of course, this doesn’t mean there aren’t still considerations to make. Vendors such as Pure Storage have developed custom flash modules and introduced other design features to optimise on performance per watt, while deliver increasing densities. Justin explains how Pure has achieved this and what we should look out for in the future.

We discuss the Pure ESG report, which can be found here – https://www.purestorage.com/company/corporate-social-responsibility.html. Justin also mentions the Accelerate TechFest event on 8th June 2022, more details are available here – https://www.purestorage.com/accelerate.html.

Elapsed Time: 00:50:03

Timeline

00:00:00 – Intros
00:01:30 – Power costs are driving the need for efficiency
00:02:30 – Power is the limiting factor on data centre design
00:03:40 – Flash generations implicitly drive power efficiencies
00:04:30 – Higher clock speeds drive higher power usage
00:06:15 – What are the hyper-scalers doing with power efficiency?
00:07:10 – Cooling is also a big efficiency factor
00:08:05 – HDDs are still hugely relevant for hyper-scalers
00:10:10 – Can businesses hedge power costs for their data centres?
00:12:35 – If you’re in a co-lo, power costs could be unpredictable
00:14:30 – In-data centre power management is creating challenges
00:17:05 – Pure has released an ESG report including power efficiency
00:18:35 – Product longevity is important to sustainability
00:20:30 – Evergreen and product design allows Pure to reduce waste
00:23:15 – What is DirectFlash?
00:26:00 – Commodity drives have DRAM and make independent decisions
00:28:05 – Couldn’t I just use the Ruler form factor?
00:30:00 – FlashArray//C uses QLC – is this more power-efficient?
00:33:42 – What software enhancements are used to increase efficiency?
00:36:00 – Data reduction features need to balance write amplification with efficiency
00:38:10 – How do end-users make decisions about picking the right products?
00:40:15 – There are no recognised metrics for measuring storage power/performance efficiency
00:44:30 – What future improvements should we expect?
00:46:50 – Code and protocol efficiency will improve power usage
00:48:15 – Wrap Up

Related Podcasts & Blogs

#228 – Exploiting Data in the Third Wave of IT Agility with Murli Thirumale
#209 – Discovering Unified Fast File and Object with Pure Storage
#211 – Pure//Launch – Announcing Fusion and Portworx Data Services
#199 – Quantifying Data Storage Innovation
Pure Storage Introduces FlashArray//XL
Pure//Launch – Pure Storage Announces Fusion and Portworx Data Services

Justin’s Bio