Data Centre Technology and Market Trends

Abstract

In this ITTF session we will provide an overview of data center technologies and market trends in the fields of server processors, memory architectures, server platforms, storage technology (both solid state and spinning media), Intel future roadmaps, Open Compute Project hardware and server-side networking. We will begin with a peek into the evolution of processors over the last 40+ years and provide an outlook into future processor trends. The highlights of the most recent Intel server processor generation (Xeon E5-2600 v3, Haswell-EP) will be presented together with the specifics of the new generation of DDR memory technology employed. Alternative processor architectures from contenders like ARM Holdings (with their AArch64 architecture) and IBM (with their OpenPOWER initiative) will be discussed. An overview of existing enterprise solid state technology will be given, showing the kind of performance provided by the currently available enterprise SSD drives and future directions for non volatile memory based storage devices. We will continue with an overview of the enterprise spinning disk market. The techniques used by the hard drive manufacturers to satisfy the demand for ever growing capacities per spindle will be described. Finally, an analysis suggesting which type of drive(s) best fit our applications will be presented. The presentation will also include Intel's plans for expansions in the computing hardware: new Skylake microarchitecture, Omni-Path interconnect, non-volatile main memory, Intel Transactional Extension and Rack-scale architecture. It will also cover broadly the next generations of Intel co-processors: Knights Landing and Knights Hill. The Open Compute Project, OCP (http://www.opencompute.org), was launched by Facebook in 2011 with the objective of building efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost. After an initial evaluation of two OCP twin server enclosures in 2013, we decided to launch a tender for acquiring OCP compliant hardware comprising both CPU servers and storage. We will introduce the OCP designs currently available on the market, the advantages they provide and how OCP could fit with CERN's computing and storage needs in the future. We will finish by showing the current status of the server-side networking in the CERN Data Center, followed by an overview of the market trends and future changes for server networking