Samsung, Western Digital to work on standardisation of multi-vendor storage devices

Samsung Electronics has signed an agreement with hard disk and USB storage company Western Digital to standardise zoned storage. Samsung calls it as a partnership to standardise data placement, processing and fabrics storage technologies (D2PF).

Zoned storage refers to a class of storage devices that enable the host devices and external storage devices to act as one, or be interoperable so as to help with better storage capacities and low latency.

The two companies have partnered with the SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association) and the Linux Foundation to define the frameworks for future zoned Storage technologies. Samsung and Western Digital have also founded the Zoned Storage Technical Work Group (TWG) in December last year.

“Overall frameworks and general solution models must come together so they do not suffer from fragmentation, which delays adoption and adds unnecessary complexity for software stack developers,” said Rob Soderbery, EVP and GM, Flash Business Unit at Western Digital.

The storage standardisation will focus on enterprise and cloud applications. Samsung expects more collaborations among industry participants for such standardisation needs. The end goal is to provide similar support from multiple device vendors, and integrations that involve multiple hardware and software companies.

“This collaboration holds special meaning in how we anticipate it will actively grow into a larger basis of engagement for Zoned Storage standardisation,” said Jinman Han, Corporate EVP, Head of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics.