As cloud computing configurations become ever more complex and expansive, seemingly simple tasks, such as configuring storage infrastructure, become more challenging. The number of technology options available for storage solutions adds another variable to the already complicated problem.

To get a better sense of the latest trends in storage solutions, Stu Miniman (@stu) and guest host John Troyer (@jtroyer), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, spoke with John Griffith (pictured, right), principal software engineer at NetApp Inc., and Kendall Nelson (pictured, left), upstream developer advocate, during the OpenStack Foundation, during this year’s OpenStack Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. (* Disclosure below.)

Storage is not to be taken for granted

“The fact is storage is kind of boring, but it’s hard. … Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, I’ll just do my own.’
It’s actually a hard thing to get right,” Griffith said. “What everybody wants to see, basically, is commoditized, automated and generic infrastructure.”

A lot of focus recently has been enabling containers with OpenStack, open-source cloud computing software.

“We had a lot of talks submitted that were focused on containers. I was just standing outside the room trying to get into a Women of OpenStack event, and the number of people that came pouring out that were interested in the container stack was amazing,” Nelson said. “I definitely think people are getting more into that and using it with OpenStack is a growing direction in the community.”

The data storage challenge exists not only in centralized applications, but also in Internet of Things use cases at the edge of large cloud deployments. When Troyer asked Griffith about these use cases, Griffith was quick to recall a particularly interesting deployment.

“I do have some experience with some folks that are deploying that model now, and … they’re doing a mini OpenStack deployment on the edge and using Cinder [block storage service] and an instance and everything else, and then pushing it. As soon as they push that out to the public, they destroy what they had, and they start over. … It’s actually really interesting,” Griffith stated.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of OpenStack Summit 2017 Boston. (* Disclosure: The OpenStack Foundation sponsors some OpenStack Summit segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither the OpenStack Foundation nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE