Much as I love consuming content via video, audio, and even reading on my Kindle, there’s nothing quite like the feel of picking up an actual book. What makes physical textbooks so much more useful is that I can highlight passages, scribble notes in the margins, and mark pages if I want to. Yes, I deface my books. But it’s all for good reason.
So, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Greg Schultz’s “Software Defined Data Infrastructure (SDDI) Essentials: Cloud, Converged, and Virtual Fundamental Server Storage I/O Tradecraft”, a great, recently published resource.
Greg Schulz is the Founder and Senior Analyst of Server StorageIO, an IT consultancy and advisory company based out of Minnesota. Greg is well regarded worldwide for his knowledge on servers, storage, I/O, networking, clustering, and other hardware and software systems and infrastructure topics, presenting at conferences, developing whitepapers, producing podcasts and more. This is the fourth textbook that Greg has published and his most comprehensive to date.
Who is this book for?
This book is not only a fundamentals course in software defined data infrastructure (such as learning about blocks and blobs, scaling servers and the like), it also drills right down and goes into detail about decision making, hybrid infrastructures, and usage.
Because this is one of the most up to date resources on the topic, even seasoned professionals are going to learn something new here. In short, it’s for beginners starting out, through to people who define and implement software infrastructures as a part of their job. People in the middle there somewhere will also get great value.
Topics covered
As we’ve moved away from direct physical infrastructures to virtual representations of infrastructures that run on physical hardware, there is a need to not only understand the underlying architecture but how software runs over the top to provide us with solutions to facilitate storage and data transfer.
The book is split up into 4 parts: Part One: Server Storage I/O, Software-Defined and Data Infrastructures, Part Two: Server I/O and Networking Deep Dive, Part Three: Storage Deep Dive and Data Services, and Part Four: Putting Software-Defined Data Infrastructures Together. Part one carries the introduction of concepts overall, parts two and three are the nitty gritty, and part four is a chapter on putting everything together in practice, as well as considerations.
My thoughts
If you are looking for a comprehensive resource to help wrap your head around software defined data structures, this is it. If you’re trying to understand why you’re running your code in containers, want to create your own cloud data center, or just want to bone up on the latest in SDDI, then this book is for you. It’s got plenty of diagrams to break text up, actionable items, and a slew of tools outlined to add to your toolbox. Read it and then subscribe to Greg’s Server StorageIO blog for the latest on the topics covered in this book.
Why am I writing a review?
I know and respect Greg as an industry expert and fellow blogger and he was kind enough to send me a copy when I asked about the book. This review is my honest opinion and I do not gain anything from book sales.
Free ‘Introduction to SAN and NAS Storage’ training course
Watch my ‘Introduction to SAN and NAS Storage’ training to learn more about storage. You can get the entire series for free here:
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