Openness, it seems, is “in the air.” While the Liqid folks were over at OCP, Russ White was over at the Open Networking Summit (ONS), where he attended the Linux Foundation (Networking), or LF(N), board meeting. What was interesting at this year’s summit is just how little the focus of open network is on bare metal routers and switches, and how much of the focus is on server-based and overlay networking. The last mile, as it were, in the data center is becoming ever more important. This just shows the question hanging over the network has not changed much in the last twenty years: how much intelligence will be pushed into the network, and how much in the host?
Composable Infrastructure
Cloud-Native Enterprise Storage, Zachary Smith, and GPU Compute in Gestalt News 18.12
This week in Gestalt News:
– Stephen Foskett looks at Kasten brings enterprise-class data services into the cloud
– We talk to Packet CEO Zachary Smith for IT Origins
– Russ White looks at GPUs and Composable Computing
GPUs and Composable Computing
In our latest Tech Talk series with Liqid, Russ White looks at why composable infrastructure is ideally suited to answer a prickly question in GPU computing: How many processors is this job going to require?
Flexible Scaleout, Tom Lyon, and Reveal(x) in Gestalt News 18.8
In this edition of Gestalt News:
– Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at ExtraHop Reveal(x)
– DriveScale’s Tom Lyon sits down for an IT Origins interview
– Russ White considers if flexible scaleout in design could have mitigated the Meltdown vulnerability
The Gen-Z Consortium: A Blade By Any Other Name?
Can the Gen-Z Consortium makes blade servers the future of the data center?
PCIe versus Ethernet in a Composable System
In response to a reader question on his look at Liqid’s composable infrastructure, Russ White frames an interesting question: is it easier to extend PCIe to support switching, and longer runs, or is it easier to design an entire protocol to (effectively) run PCIe over Ethernet? Liqid developed their solution based on former, but other composable infrastructure projects prefer an Ethernet based approach. It’s an interesting look into the benefits and drawbacks of both.
Compose Your Infrastructure with Liqid
The idea behind composable infrastructure is so cool, it seems like it has to be made up. The basic concept it to be able to dynamically use pooled resources to make servers that fit your current need, rather than make applications and use cases conform to fixed hardware. If I had to personify composable infrastructure, it would be a transformer that’s made up of grey goo nanobots.
Liqid’s composable infrastructure bridges the gap with this fantastic idea with PCIe Fabric and bare metal goodness. Sadly no nanobots.