Storage no 42 : Innovation Rejuvenates Data Storage

The new issue of Storage magazine is dedicated to innovation, new ideas that will help overcome the challenges facing the data storage sector, which is currently undergoing a profound transformation. On one hand, there is the explosion of AI projects, which add even more data copies, posing increasing economic constraints. On the other hand, the market is currently being impacted by a shortage of NAND memories, which increases the price of new SSD equipment by the month. Moreover, there is always the need to solve the fragility of storage solutions, both in terms of time and cyberattacks.

It has become increasingly critical to extend the lifespan of existing materials. This issue of Storage discusses solutions that optimize the density of these materials by simplifying software layers to reduce operational costs, both on-site and in the cloud. It also highlights the search for immortal and permanent supports, which is currently crystallizing with the challenges facing suppliers.

Among these new ideas, DataCore has evolved its object storage solution, Swarm, to a container format. This transformation enables rapid system installation on heterogeneous and recycled hardware, bypassing the shortage and high cost of SSDs. Swarm facilitates the grouping of different brands of materials, freeing users from traditional RAID constraints through Erasure Coding, a technique native to object storage that presents here an unparalleled advantage.

In the same order of ideas, the startup Enakta Labs is marketing Enakta Data Platform, a version in hand of the OpenDaOS system, an open-source system. This system transforms SSD arrays into highly performing storage to meet the needs of AI, but it is naturally extremely complex to use. The innovation of Enakta Labs lies in the addition of standard protocols (SMB, S3, PyTorch) over the LibDAOS library.

The New Zealand-based startup Novodisq is proposing a 2U chassis that can host 11.5 Peta of real storage via 20 server blades. The architecture relies on an AMD Versal AI Edge SoC, integrating ARM cores and an FPGA, allowing for data processing (AI, video analysis) directly at the storage level.

Regarding cloud storage, ZettaLane proposes MayaNAS (file mode) and MayaScale (block mode) to optimize the performance-to-price ratio on AWS, GCP, and Azure. By leveraging low-cost storage services piloted by VM controllers using ZFS and a proprietary driver (objbacker.io), the startup eliminates bottlenecks related to FUSE drivers, transforming clusters of VMs into highly performing virtual storage pools.

On the subject of data preservation, the open-source solution, Plakar, offers a simplified approach to backup via a single command and a proprietary format, Kloset. The tool integrates duplication, compression (LZ4), and encryption directly at the source, ensuring independence from the storage provider and significant reductions in transferred volumes. Plakar targets development teams by allowing autonomous management of backups in a zero-trust environment.

Finally, the German startup, Ewigbyte, is developing a glass storage technology aiming to replace magnetic and polymer media, which are unstable over the long term. Unlike competing projects focused on density, Ewigbyte prioritizes access speed by using multi-bit laser engraving (similar to QR codes), aiming for 500 MB/s per reader speed. This support offers native physical immutability and total recyclability.

Download the Storage#42 magazine for free.

All rights reserved, Copyright 2007 - 2026, TechTarget Confidentiality Cookie Settings Cookie Settings