What is Confidential Computing and Why Should I Care?

In the "arms race" of security, new defensive tactics are always needed. One significant approach is Confidential Computing: a technology that can isolate data and execution in a secure space on a system, which takes the concept of security to new levels. This SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative (CSTI) webcast will provide an introduction and explanation of Confidential Computing and will feature a panel of industry architects responsible for defining Confidential Compute. It will be a lively conversation on topics including:

• The basics of hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and how they work to enable confidential computing
• How to architect solutions based around TEEs
• How this foundation fits with other security technologies
• Adjacencies to storage technologies

In modern analytics deployments, latency is the fatal flaw that limits the efficacy of the overall system.  Solutions move at the speed of decision, and microseconds could mean the difference between success and failure against competitive offerings.  Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and In-Memory Analytics solutions have significantly reduced latency, but the sheer volume of data and its potential broad distribution across the globe prevents a single analytics node from efficiently harvesting and processing data.This panel discussion will feature industry experts discussing the different approaches to distributed analytics in the network and storage nodes. How does the storage providers of HDDs and SSD view the data creation and movement between the edge compute and the cloud? And how can computational storage be a solution to reduce data movement?

With ever increasing threat vectors both inside and outside the data center, a compromised customer dataset can quickly result in a torrent of lost business data, eroded trust, significant penalties, and potential lawsuits. Vulnerabilities exist at every point when scaling out NVMe, which require data to be secured every time it leaves a server or the storage media, not only when leaving the data center. NVMe over Fabrics is poised to be the one of the most dominant transports of the future and securing and validating the vast amounts of data that would traverse this fabric is not just prudent, but paramount.

Join the webcast to hear Industry experts discuss current and future strategies to secure and protect your mission critical data.

You will learn:
- Industry trends and regulations around data security
- Potential threats and vulnerabilities
- Existing security mechanisms and best practices
- How to secure NVMe in flight and at rest
- Ecosystem and market dynamics
- Upcoming standards

Rerecord Erik's section

In the ongoing evolution of the datacenter, a popular debate involves how storage is allocated and managed. There are three competing visions about how storage should be done; those are Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI), Disaggregated Storage, and Centralized Storage.

IT architects, storage vendors, and industry analysts argue constantly over which is the best approach and even the exact definition of each. Isn’t Hyperconverged constrained? Is Disaggregated designed only for large cloud service providers? Is Centralized storage only for legacy applications?

Tune in to debate these questions and more:
• What is the difference between centralized, hyperconverged, and disaggregated infrastructure, when it comes to storage?
• Where does the storage controller or storage intelligence live in each?
• How and where can the storage capacity and intelligence be distributed?
• What is the difference between distributing the compute or application and distributing the storage?
• What is the role of a JBOF or EBOF (Just a Bunch of Flash or Ethernet Bunch of Flash) in these storage models?
• What are the implications for data center, cloud, and edge?

Join us on May 4, 2021 for another SNIA Networking Storage Forum Great Storage Debate as leading storage minds converge to argue the definitions and merits of where to put the storage and storage intelligence.

The storage industry is working on ways to meet the demand for the very high throughput required for the volume of transactions per second in Blockchain operations.

There have been numerous advancements in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) logics to improve the number of transactions per second for Blockchain operations. But these FPGA/ASIC improvements will not be sufficient for increasing the demand of hardware resources required for Blockchain. Smart network interface cards (NICs) offload low-level functions from server CPUs, dramatically increasing network and application performance, offloading all network related processing.

In this webcast, you will learn:
• The features of a Smart Network Interface Card (SMART-NIC) and how this will improve Blockchain transactions
• Why using SCM is ideal for in-memory databases
• Advantages of direct data movement without involving filesystems
• Benefits of using SCM to improve Blockchain transactions

In the world of cloud services development, it's necessary to gain an edge on the myriad of competition facing your product or service. Volume and variety are not just characteristics of cloud data, but also of the software needed to deliver accurate decisions. While a variety of software techniques exist to create effective development teams, sometimes it's worthwhile to look elsewhere for additional success factors. In this webcast, we'll be focusing on adapting some of the principles of modern manufacturing to add to the development toolbox. A Continuous Delivery methodology ensures that the product is streamlined in its feature set while building constant value to the customer via the cloud. Attendees will learn the following:

- Structuring development and testing resources for Continuous Delivery
- A flexible software planning cycle for driving new features throughout the process
- A set of simple guidelines for tracking success
- Ways to ensure new features are delivered before moving to the next plan

Large-scale computing designs are increasingly multi-node and linked together through high-speed networks. These networks may be comprised of different types of technologies, fungible, and morphing. Over time, many different types of high-performance networking devices will evolve to participate in these modern, coupled-computing platforms. New fabric management capabilities, orchestration, and automation will be required to deploy, secure, and optimally maintain these high-speed networks.
Join this presentation to gain insights from experts representing the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), and the OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA) on how the two organizations are collaborating to improve and promote the vendor neutral, standards-based management of open source fabrics and remote network services or devices in high performance data center infrastructures.
As part of this joint effort, a new open source fabric management framework is being developed by the OpenFabrics Alliance which will integrate with DMTF Redfish® and SNIA Swordfish™ specifications for comprehensive management of servers, storage and fabrics including NVMe® and NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) technology environments.
Reserve your spot today!

Start-up companies interested in using business analytics have a series of choices regarding different hardware, software, and services available in the cloud. The decision process for established companies, though, is more significant. Considering whether to use existing practices or start anew creates multiple decision points in any process. This SNIA webcast will feature views from both start-up and established companies on how to make the analytics decision. Attendees should expect to learn:
• Real-world examples of the analytics decision process
• How to use cloud resources in unique ways to accomplish business and engineering goals
• Starting from the perspective of business requirements and developing technical metrics
• Thoughts on when to start new vs. adapt existing analytics processes
After you watch the presentation, check out the Q&A blog: https://bit.ly/3u5pNtm

Over the past several years, many in the NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) ecosystem have used test results demonstrating NVMe-oF’s dramatic reduction in latency as a way to extrapolate the benefit it can provide to application consumers. To date, the focus has been on specialized fabrics like RDMA and Fibre Channel (FC).

Unfortunately, the more important questions have been left as an exercise for the buyer: “How does the transport really impact application performance?” and “How does the transport holistically fit into my environment?”


RDMA based fabrics (e.g., RoCE) provide the lowest possible latency, and FC provides the most reliability, but with the introduction of NVMe/TCP this conversation must also include scale, cost and operations. This webcast will attempt to answer these questions beyond “it depends.”

Gain insights from an industry wide panel of NVMe and fabric technology experts as they discuss the thought process you can use to determine pros and cons of a fabric for your environment, including:
• Use cases driving fabric choices
• NVMe transports and their strengths
• Industry dynamics driving adoption
• Considerations for scale, security, and efficiency
After you watch the webcast, check out the Q&A blog at: bit.ly/3wRPeQV

Artificial Intelligence technologies are possibly the most substantive and meaningful change to modern business. The ability to process large amounts of data with varying degrees of structure and form enables large leaps in insight to drive revenue and profit. Likewise, governments and civil society have significant opportunity for improvement of the lives of the populace. However, with the power that AI brings comes the risks of any technology innovation. This interactive session will cover some of the ethical issues that AI can bring. Attendees should expect to learn:
• How making decisions at the speed of AI could be ethically challenging
• Examples of how companies have structures to approach AI policy
• The pitfalls of managing the human side of AI development
• Potential legal implications of using AI to make decisions
• Advice for addressing potential ethics issues before they are unsolvable

After you watch the webcast, check out the Q&A blog https://bit.ly/3vW5WOF

20-year SNIA veteran Mike Walker has created a series of videos titled “SMI-S Quick Start Guides” that provides developers using the SMI-S storage management specification instructions on how to find useful information in a SMI-S server using the python-based PyWBEM open source tool. This video covers SMI-S mockup

20-year SNIA veteran Mike Walker has created a series of videos titled “SMI-S Quick Start Guides” that provides developers using the SMI-S storage management specification instructions on how to find useful information in an SMI-S server using the python-based PyWBEM open source tool. Watch this short trailer for a preview of the content you can expect to see in the series.

20-year SNIA veteran Mike Walker has created a series of videos titled “SMI-S Quick Start Guides” that provides developers using the SMI-S storage management specification instructions on how to find useful information in a SMI-S server using the python-based PyWBEM open source tool. This video covers SMI-S mockup

20-year SNIA veteran Mike Walker has created a series of videos titled “SMI-S Quick Start Guides” that provides developers using the SMI-S storage management specification instructions on how to find useful information in an SMI-S server using the python-based PyWBEM open source tool. Watch this short trailer for a preview of the content you can expect to see in the series.

So much of what we discuss within SNIA is the latest emerging technologies in storage. While it’s good to know about what technology is coming, it’s also important to understand the technologies that should be sunsetted.

In this webcast, you’ll learn about storage technologies and practices in your data center that are ready for refresh or possibly retirement. Find out why some long-standing technologies and practices should be re-evaluated. We’ll discuss:

•Obsolete hardware, protocols, interfaces and other aspects of storage
•Why certain technologies are no longer in general use
•Technologies on their way out and why
•Drivers for change
•Justifications for obsoleting proven technologies
•Trade-offs risks: new faster/better vs. proven/working tech

After you watch the webcast, check out the Q&A blog at https://bit.ly/3aGyeUK

The COVID-19 Pandemic has amplified cybersecurity concerns particularly related to the cloud. Threat actors have recognized a unique opportunity to exploit pandemic-related vulnerabilities through social engineering attacks, business email compromise, work from home or other remote weak points. This results in increased risk and occurrence of ransomware attacks and data breaches that can disrupt or totally compromise organizations’ ability to conduct business. These security incidents can also subject victims to liability for violations of privacy and data breach notification laws. Join this webcast as SNIA experts will discuss:
• Changing threat landscape due to COVID
• Recent attacker exploits
• Common security failures and their consequences
• Data Protection (Mounir)
o Strategies to combat malware
o Minimizing ransomware risks
• How emerging technologies (5G, IoT, AI, etc.) expand the threat landscape

After you watch the webcast, check out the Q&A blog at https://bit.ly/3qp2j0B