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Edge is the new frontier of compute and data in today’s world, driven by the explosive growth of mobile devices, work from home, digital video, smart cities, and connected cars. An increasing percentage of data is generated and processed at the edge of the network. With this trend comes the need for faster computing, access to storage, and movement of data at the edge as well as between the edge and the data center. Attend this SNIA Networking Storage Forum webcast on June 15, 2022 where we will discuss: 

• The increasing need to do more at the edge across compute, storage and networking
• The rise of intelligent edge locations
• Different solutions that provide faster processing or data movement at the edge
• How computational storage can speed up data processing and transmission at the edge
• Security considerations for edge processing 
 
We look forward to having you join us to cover all this and more. We promise to keep you on the edge of your virtual seat!

Storage Life on the Edge: Accelerated Performance Strategies

As applications continue to increase in complexity and users demand more from their workloads, there is a trend to again deploy dedicated accelerator chips to assist or offload the main CPU.  These new accelerators (xPUs) have multiple names such as SmartNIC, DPU, IPU, APU, NAPU. How are these different than GPU, TPU, CPU? xPUs accelerate and offload functions including math, networking, storage, cryptography, security, and management. This webcast will cover key topics about, and clarify questions surrounding, xPUs, including… 

1. xPU Definition: What is an xPU (SmartNIC, DPU, IPU, APU, NAPU), GPU, TPU, CPU? A focus on high-level architecture and definition of the xPU.

2. Trends and Workloads: What is driving the trend to use hardware accelerators again after years of software-defined everything? What types of workloads are typically offloaded or accelerated?  

3. Deployment and Solutions: What are the pros and cons of dedicated accelerator chips versus running everything on the CPU?   

4. Market landscape Who provides these new accelerators—the CPU, storage, networking, and/or cloud vendors?  How do cost and power factor in?  
 
On May 19th, join us for Part 1 of this xPU Series to get the answers to these questions. Part 2 of this series will take a deep dive on accelerator offload functions and Part 3 will focus on deployment and solutions.

SmartNICs to xPUs – Why is the Use of Accelerators Accelerating?

The complex and changeable structure of edge computing, together with its network connections, massive real-time data, challenging operating environment, distributed edge cloud collaboration, and other characteristics, create a multitude of security challenges. This panel of experts will explore these challenges and wade into the debate as to whether existing security practices and standards are adequate for this emerging area of computing. Join us for a discussion that will cover:
• Understanding the key security issues associated with edge computing
• Identify potentially relevant standards and industry guidance (e.g., IoT security)
• Offer awareness of new security initiatives focused on edge computing

Storage Life on the Edge: Security Challenges

Data privacy, data governance and data security are all terms that are mistakenly used interchangeably. They are indeed related, particularly when it comes to keeping data in the cloud protected, private and secure, but the definitions and mechanics of executing on each are all quite different. 

Join us for another “15 Minutes in the Cloud” session for an overview of what each of these terms means, how and where they intersect, and why it’s a balancing act to pay adequate attention to each one or risk threatening the overall security of your data. 

Presenting will be security experts Thomas Rivera, CISSP, CIPP/US, CDPSE and
Strategic Success Manager at VMware Black Carbon together with Eric Hibbard, CISSP-ISSAP, ISSMP, ISSEP, CIPP/US, CIPT, CISA, CDPSE, CCSK and Director, Product Planning – Storage Networking & Security, Samsung Semiconductor.

15 Minutes in the Cloud: Data Privacy vs. Governance vs. Security

This second webcast in the Storage Life on the Edge series, provides an overview of edge to cloud use cases where storage and compute resources need to be deployed in practical topologies that deliver the very best in application performance. From data analytics and AI inference to emerging IoT edge applications, our panelists will provide a cornucopia of use cases across these categories along with specific, real-world examples.

After you watch the presentation, read the Q&A blog: https://bit.ly/3uQphRS

Storage Life on the Edge: Edge Storage Use Cases

Digital transformation is driving technology to rapidly evolve towards modernisation of applications with microservices-based architecture being at the core. With the ubiquitous adoption of Kubernetes, cloud-native container technologies are enabling microservices-based application modernization. Such architecture drives the value across the stack and eventually enables business spanning from small-to-medium businesses to large enterprises to be more agile. Such architectural pattern evolution applied across industry vertical drives the need for an infrastructure solution tailor-made for application modernization. In this talk, we present a vendor neutral viewpoint, experiences and observation of the application mordernization trend across the industry and how modern day hyper converged systems are emerging to cater to this growing need.

Enabling Application Modernisation with Hyper Converged Systems

Everyone is familiar with the term “Cloud” but it’s still worth asking “What is cloud?”  The definition of Cloud has only been around for a dozen years or so. It can be defined as “networked computing facilities providing remote data storage and processing services via the internet.” While the definition is simple, the real-world of cloud is complex, and changing constantly. 

This first talk in the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative “15 Minutes in the Cloud” series will present a brief history of “The Cloud.” If you are a cloud expert, these sessions might not be for you, but for everyone else, this series of short talks might clear up a lot of questions you may have. Join us for a discussion on:
• Common Cloud Terminology
• How all the parts work together
• Why the cloud and what it’s used for
•	Example use cases
•	SNIA Educational resources on Cloud

15 Minutes in the Cloud: What is Cloud?

Blockchains, cryptocurrency, and the internet of markets are working to transform finance, wealth, safety, digital security, and trust. Storage-based cryptocurrencies had a breakout year in 2021. Proof of Space and Time is a new blockchain consensus that uses storage capacity to secure the blockchain. Decentralized file storage will enable alternatives to hyperscale data centers for hosting files and objects. Understanding the TCO of a storage system and optimizing the utilization of the storage hardware is critical in scaling these systems. Proof of space generation requires temporary compute and ephemeral storage resources. Having compute resources onboard an SSD can allow for local data processing to decrease overall system Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Join SNIA members Jonmichael Hands of Chia Network, and Eli Tiomkin of NGD Systems as they discuss how a new approach of auto-plotting SSDs combined with computational storage can lower the total TCO. They will discuss how autoplotting works, provide server use cases that illustrate significant performance/TB gains, and discuss the results based on the SNIA Total Cost of Ownership Mode for Storage. This is a perfect opportunity to learn about the SNIA TCO model with an interactive case study.

Why Cryptocurrency and Computational Storage?

As the computational performance of modern supercomputers is approaching the ExaFLOPS level (10**18 floating point operations per second), the demands on the storage systems that feed these supercomputers continue to increase. On top of traditional HPC simulation workloads, more and more supercomputers are also designed to simultaneously satisfy new data centric workflows with very different I/O characteristics.
 
Through their massive scale-out capabilities, current parallel file systems are more than able to provide the capacity and raw bandwidth that is needed at Exascale. But it can be difficult to achieve high performance for the increasingly complex data access patterns, to manage billions of small files efficiently, and to continuously feed large GPU based systems with the huge datasets that are required in ML/AI workloads.
 
This webcast will examine the different I/O workflows seen on supercomputers today, discussing the approaches the industry is taking to support the convergence of HPC and AI workflows, and highlighting some of the innovations in both storage hardware and parallel file system software that will enable high performance storage at Exascale and beyond, discussing: 
• Overview of typical use cases: Numerical simulation, sensor data ingest and analysis, ML/AI, etc.
•	Advancements in HPC storage hardware: From HDDs to storage class memory
•	Solution design: HPC storage fabrics, software stacks, heterogeneity, and tiering
•	Workflows: How to ensure data is available in the right place at the right moment
•	Realities of high-performance storage management – from the perspective of end users and storage administrators

High Performance Storage at Exascale

The convergence of 5G, Edge Compute and Artificial Intelligence (AI) promise to be catalyst for Digital transformation within industrial segments. Advanced 5G is specifically designed to address the needs of verticals with capabilities like enhanced mobile broadband (emBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (urLLC), and massive machine type communications (mMTC), to enable near real-time distributed intelligence applications. For example, automated guided vehicle and autonomous mobile robots (AGV/AMRs), wireless cameras, augmented reality for connected workers, and smart sensors across many verticals ranging from healthcare and immersive media, to factory automation. 

Using this data, manufacturers are looking to maximize operational efficiency and process optimization by leveraging AI and machine learning. To do that, they need to understand and effectively manage the sources and trustworthiness of timely data.

This presentation will take a deep dive into how:
• Edge can be defined and current state of the industry  
•	Industrial Edge is being transformed  
•	5G and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) play a foundational role in Industry 4.0  
•	The convergence of high-performance wireless connectivity and AI creates new data-intensive use cases         
•	The right data pipeline layer provides persistent, trustworthy storage from edge to cloud

5G Industrial Private Networks and Edge Data Pipelines

Cloud to Edge infrastructures are rapidly growing.  It is expected that by 2025, up to 75% of all data generated will be created at the edge.  However, Edge is a tricky word and you’ll get a different definition depending on who you ask. The physical edge could be in a factory, retail store, hospital, car, plane, cell tower level, or on your mobile device. The network edge could be a top-of-rack switch, server running host-based networking, or 5G base station. 

The Edge means putting servers, storage, and other devices outside the core data center and closer to both the data sources and the users of that data—both edge sources and edge users could be people or machines. 

At our first webcast in this series, “Storage Life on the Edge: Managing Data from the Edge to the Cloud and Back” you‘ll learn:

• Data and compute pressure points: aggregation, near & far Edge
• Supporting IoT data
• Analytics and AI considerations
• Understanding data lifecycle to generate insights
• Governance, security & privacy overview
• Managing multiple Edge sites in a unified way
After you watch the presentation, check out the Q&A blog from our presenters https://bit.ly/3CrLngE

Storage Life on the Edge: Managing Data from the Edge to the Cloud and Back

Over the past decade IT organizations have discovered the benefits of moving applications and storage to the cloud. Recent trends point to an increase of on-premises hybrid cloud solutions.  Cloud-native applications running in containers have driven the need for high-performance persistent storage that is both easy to deploy and manage.  

In this live webcast, FCIA experts will explore the role that Fibre Channel plays in merging the benefits of a cloud-based infrastructure with the advantages of an on-premises hosting solution for gains in reliability, performance, and scalability - all with cost reduction. With a focus on Kubernetes, we will explain how these best practice environments can be combined for the next generation of application deployments. Join us for a discussion on: 
• Cloud market trends  
• How organizations are deploying cloud  
•	Introduction to containers and persistent storage  
•	The role of Fibre Channel in Kubernetes  
•	Evolution of container storage interfaces and CSI 
•	Fibre Channel fabric requirements and considerations

Kubernetes and Fibre Channel: A Compelling Case

Ransomware is malware that encrypts valuable data and then asks the victim for ransom in lieu of providing the decryption keys. One way to not fall prey to Ransomware is to keep regular backups, and use them as last line of defence. Lately some of the ransomware attacks have started encrypting or destroying the backup images as well. They target predominately Windows as of now, though other systems are also targeted.
  
This webinar is about solutions built from the ground up to lockdown disk-based backup images. It goes beyond storage, and protects certain specific processes from code injection and masquerading to gain trust. Here we will discuss our experience of designing and developing this solution on Windows platform.

In this session we will:
- Explain ransomware behaviour around backup data with concrete examples
- Explain best practices when dealing with 3rd party products, anti-virus etc.
- Share experiences with customers involving real ransomware attacks
- Discuss future directions

Mitigating the Ransomware Threat: a Backup Solution Perspective

As storing data in the cloud has become ubiquitous and mature, many organizations have adopted a multi-cloud strategy. Eliminating dependence on a single cloud platform is quite a compelling case.

But multi-cloud environments are not without challenges. Taking advantage of the benefits without increasing complexity requires a strategy that ensures applications are not tightly coupled to cloud-specific technologies. Supporting a storage abstraction layer that insulates the application from the underlying cloud provider's interfaces allows an application to be easily used with multiple clouds. It allows storage features specific to a cloud to be exposed in a standardized manner and enables data to be transparently accessed and migrated as needed in order to take advantage of cloud-specific features without the application being aware of the underlying mechanics, thus reducing or eliminating the limits and vulnerabilities of any one cloud.

How, and why, to support a storage abstraction layer will be the focus of this live webcast where our experts will cover:

• Risk mitigation of multiple clouds
• Transparent movement of data from cloud to cloud
• Political, regulatory and compliance considerations
• Multi-cloud as part of a business continuity strategy
• Exit cost reduction
•	Running work in parallel across clouds

Why Use Multiple Clouds?

The automotive industry is effectively transforming the vehicle into a data center on wheels. Connectedness, autonomous driving, and media & entertainment bring in more and more storage onboard and into the networked data centers. But all the storage in (and for) a car is not created equal. There are 10s if not 100s of different processors on the car. Some are attached to storage and some are not. Each application demands different characteristics from the storage device. Let’s explore all of this in an informational journey with the industry experts from both the storage and automotive worlds.

• What’s driving growth in automotive storage?  
• Special requirements for autonomous vehicles 
• Where automotive data is typically stored?  
•	Special use cases
•	Vehicle networking & compute changes and challenges
After you watch the presentation, read the Q&A blog from the presenters https://bit.ly/335XDX5

Revving Up Storage for Automotive

Storing objects has become commonplace. Object storage provides bulk and undifferentiated storage for unstructured data like photos, video & audio, DNA sequences, files, backups, and it can even protect against ransomware. Object access is also simplified because there are no built-in hierarchies or filesystems of objects, and no devices to manage that look like disks. 

So, what’s new? Object storage has traditionally been accomplished in the software stack and is now being accomplished directly on the media. In this presentation, we’ll highlight how this is happening and discuss: 
 
• Object storage characteristics    
• The differences and similarities between object and key value storage  
•	Security options unique to object storage including ransomware mitigation  
•	Why use object storage: Use cases and applications    
•	Object storage and containers: Why Kubernetes’ COSI (Container Object Storage Interface)?

Object Storage: Trends, Use Cases

NVMe® IP-based SANs (including TCP, RoCE, iWARP) have the potential to provide significant benefits in application environments ranging from the Edge to the Data Center.  However, before we can fully unlock NVMe IP-based SAN’s potential, we first need to overcome the NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF™) discovery problem.  This discovery problem, specific to IP based fabrics, can result in the need for Host administrators to explicitly configure each Host to access each of the NVM subsystems in their environment.  In addition, any time an NVM Subsystem interface is added or removed, the Host administrator may need to explicitly update the configuration of impacted hosts.  This process does not scale when more than a few Host and NVM subsystem interfaces are in use.  Also, due to the de-centralized nature of this process, it also adds complexity when trying to use NVMe IP-based SANs in environments that require a high-degrees of automation.
  
For these and other reasons, several companies have been collaborating on innovations that simplify and automate the discovery process used with NVMe IP-based SANs.  

During this session we will explain:
• NVMe IP-based SAN discovery problem 
• The types of network topologies that can support the automated discovery of NVMe-oF Discovery controllers
• Direct Discovery versus Centralized Discovery
• An overview of the discovery protocol

After you watch the webcast, check out the Q&A blog: https://bit.ly/3nI8Tk4

NVMe-oF: Discovery Automation for NVMe IP-based SANs

SNIA develops a wide range of standards to enhance the interoperability of various storage systems.  With new technologies like computational storage, standards do not exist. As companies develop solutions, questions arise.  Should computational storage have standards for recommended behavior for hardware and software?  Should an application programming interface be defined?

At SNIA, over 250 volunteers answered yes, and new work is being defined both within SNIA and in collaboration with other industry standards bodies. Join leaders of the Computational Storage Technical Work Group as they  discuss how they define and develop standards with input from many different companies and users, what they perceive as important today and moving forward, and how you can participate.​

Computational Storage – Driving Success, Driving Standards

As part of the successful “Everything You Wanted To Know About Storage But Were Too Proud To Ask” series, we’ve discussed numerous topics about storage devices, protocols, and networks. As we examine some of these topics further, we begin to tease out some subtle nuances; subtle, yet important nevertheless.

In Part Sepia, we’re going to take a look at some of the terms and concepts that affect Storage Architectures as a whole. In particular, we’ll be looking at those aspects that can help or hinder storage systems inside the network:

•Encapsulation versus Tunneling
•IOPS vs Latency vs Jitter
•Quality of Service (QoS)

Each of these topics has a profound impact on storage designs and performance, but they are often misunderstood. We’re going to help you become clear on all of these very important storage concepts so that you can grok storage just a little bit more.

After the webcast, check out the Q&A blog at http://sniaesfblog.org/?p=629

Everything You Wanted To Know about Storage: Getting from Here to There

Storage

Architecture

IOPS

Latency

Jitter

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Everything You Wanted To Know about Storage: Getting from Here to There

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