NVMe 2.0 Specifications: Shaping the Future of Enterprise Storage

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By Bill Lynn, Dell EMC

By removing the legacy baggage that came along with SCSI and the performance limitations of SATA, NVMe technology has established itself as an industry standard and is expanding to many markets, including client, cloud and enterprise. The NVMe 2.0 specifications released in 2021 include many new features and command sets that will benefit developers and help shape the future of enterprise storage markets.

At Dell Technologies, NVMe technology spans across our entire portfolio. Dell takes advantage of the massive boost in storage performance that NVMe technology offers, with NVMe technology options on almost every server we sell, in addition to every platform.

Key Benefits for Enterprise Markets

Many of the new features included in the NVMe 2.0 specifications will benefit our higher availability storage subsystems on the Dell EMC side. The domains and partitions feature, which allows a storage system to be constructed from multiple Domains, will support emerging use cases for enterprise storage arrays and subsystems.

The addition of new security features will also be highly beneficial for the enterprise. The NVMe 2.0 specifications updated the Protection Information to now support 32-bit and 64-bit CRCs, which allows for stronger data protection for large-scale storage systems.

These are just a few examples of how NVMe 2.0 technology will affect the enterprise. We look forward to seeing how we can exploit the benefits the new like Endurance Group Management, which open the possibility of QLC type devices and how to manage them in the enterprise.

Along with the new NVMe 2.0 specifications features, NVMe-oF technology remains to be an absolute game changer for enterprise. NVMe-oF technology allows remote devices on a network to look like locally attached devices, which is critically important to supporting a disaggregated approach to storage.

Flexibility for Developers

In addition to increased storage performance, another benefit of adopting NVMe technology in the enterprise is that it provides a lot of flexibility for developers. The major reorganization of the NVMe 2.0 specifications will make them more comprehensive for developers. These refactored specifications have given developers the ability to mix and match different flash technologies and allow developers to work with both simultaneously through the same interface. This flexibility will contribute to increased NVMe technology adoption in all markets, including enterprise.

Learn More

I was recently interviewed about how NVMe technology is transforming enterprise storage markets. I invite you to watch my interview to learn more.

Readers can view the full series of NVMe 2.0 specifications videos on the NVM Express YouTube Channel to learn more about the latest features and how NVMe technology is propelling the industry forward.