Bit Routing and Components

I’ve written several posts that describe a product construction strategy that revolves around componentization:

• CSX Technology allows developers to componentize critical data path assets and move them onto different platforms.
• Flex Components allow developers to re-use GUI constructs like common navigation and wizard frameworks when building new interfaces.
• Innovation can occur when portable assets are then joined together as part of a component assembly framework.

Given this type of multi-platform component re-use, a pretty significant challenge arises. Let’s say, for example, that I want to assemble a product that accepts block I/O and then routes it through a variety of assembled components. For example, first I may index these blocks (e.g. using Kazeon components), then I may compress (using the internally developed Viper component), then I may protect (e.g. using RAID and/or remote mirroring components). I can combine these components to run together on any platform.

Here’s the rub: how do I route data bits into this particular component assembly, and then out to disk, on any platform?

The answer is easy to say but complex to implement: create re-usable protocol components. By protocol I’m talking about things like iSCSI and SATA.  Can the same protocol components be run on LINUX and Windows? Can they be embedded in hypervisors?

The answer is yes when you have the above-mentioned data-path portability framework (CSX).

In addition to the engineers currently morphing EMC’s valuable IP algorithms into a portability framework, the company needs a large body of software engineers to wrap protocol logic into portable components. This work is architectural and design-oriented in nature. Block protocols are not the only components that need attention. File (NFS and CIFS), object (CAS/COS), and most recently SQL (e.g. GreenPlum assets) all represent protocols that could sit on top (or on the bottom) of software component assemblies.

At a recent all-hands meeting I heard that our Unified Storage Division (USD) has hired over 300 people this year, with hundreds more on the way. I wasn’t surprised. There’s a lot of work to do.  Some of these new employees will be targeted at the component assembly framework, with an emphasis on bit routing protocols.

It represents a significantly different (and hopefully much faster) way to assemble products.

Steve

Information Playground

Twitter: @SteveTodd

EMC Intrapreneur