PROSTOR conference about storage: from a partner meeting to an international technological event

If you follow data storage technologies, you most likely heard about the “Prostor” conference, which “Radix” has been organizing since 2015. This year it will be held on November 1 in Moscow, and while we are working on the final program, we will tell you about how the conference appeared, what we and our partners told us in past years and for whom it will be interesting in 2018.

How did the Prostor

Radiks is a software company from St. Petersburg. We are writing our storage management software and, in parallel, we are working with large companies to jointly develop technologies and maximize the efficiency of software and hardware products. Our partners in Russia and abroad use RAIDIX in ready platform and infrastructure solutions.

The advantages and distinctive features of the company lie on the surface: strengths in technology and in-house developments, in understanding the future and the ability to build cooperation with technology partners.
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For a long time, our company held a partner summit - a small event, more like a gathering with friends, which naturally organized around itself a real ecosystem of professionals.

In 2015, it came to be understood that there is an audience of people who are interested in discussing technology and sharing experience in this specialized industry. Then it was decided to move to a new level and do something more than just a partner meeting.

And we conceived to find those who are ready to share advanced knowledge, valuable for our audience.

About the participants

It quickly became clear that the Russian data storage market lacked such an event. The first “Prostor”, in the distant 2015th, gathered a star cast of participants: the speakers included Panasonic, Intel, Western Digital, Broadcom. The session of reports about data access protocols, network solutions and storage key / value was moderated by Michael Kagan, CTO Mellanox.

The next “Prostor” in 2016, we invited Esther Spanier (SanDisk, in 2016 Western Digital was acquired), which later participated in the conference program committee. The case study was presented by Gabriel Kang, director of the South Korean IT Services company: he talked about building a data storage system for a video surveillance system for 2,000 cameras.





The geography of the speakers in the next year has expanded even more: Elastifile and E8 Storage startups have been added (R & D is based in Israel); Russian representative office of Micron was connected.





From the list of participants one more distinctive feature of the “Expanse” becomes clear:

This is an international conference.

The bar is high, and we put a lot of effort and energy into the event, but! The opportunity to work with world-class international experts is much more expensive. For us, it is critically important not only to know what will happen in our market tomorrow, but already, by noon of tomorrow, we have to offer our solution with distinctive competitive advantages. It is most effective to learn about what will be in demand in the future, of course, firsthand.



In 2017, we accelerated to 14 reports, more than half of which were in English and required simultaneous translation. This year we are also planning the participation of foreign speakers and speeches on the most relevant topics.

And that's how ideas evolved over the three years of evolution of “Expanse”.

What we were talking about

In 2015, the conference was divided into three large sessions:

• Storage Media: AFA, Hybrid Storage, Log-Structured Recording
• Discussion of data access protocols, new network solutions, FCoE
• Construction of storage, SDS, RAID-controllers in data centers

Having received its share of criticism for discussing life on Mars, it was decided to bring the next conference closer to earth problems.

The 2016 program included:

• Overview of the development of Flash technologies and their new features
• The development of storage networks and (possible) victory Ethernet
• Optical storage technology, archive solutions

Applied questions were added in the reports on load analysis on storage systems in the real world, construction of storage systems for video surveillance and practical use of SDS.



At the third “Expanse” in 2017, they started talking about questions a little differently:

• SSD drives, NVMe development
• Approaches to storing extra large amounts of information
• Data Center Management

By the way, the struggle of FC with Ethernet continued that year, and - we again moved away from the practice in the direction of theoretical studies.



In 2018, we will talk about what used to be only a prospect, and now - everyday reality, so we will add even more cases to the program (we’re interested to know how it all works in life). Traditionally: we will issue a demo zone this year, show the hardware and tell you how it all works.

Lecture hall

The conference is attended by specialists of various levels: engineers, experts, scientists, technical directors. In the hall - both employees of large state institutions, specialists of well-known and reputable IT companies, and enthusiasts from young industry startups. In general, a living and correct community, in which (frankly) there are much more realists than visionaries and strategists who live in the future.



Due to the specialized topic, there are almost no “random” visitors at the conference. By the way, based on experience, the most correct questions are asked by representatives of integrator companies (sit closer to them and be sure to talk during the break).

Registration for the conference is open on the website.

"Prostor" will be held on November 1 in Moscow in Deworkacy Red October (m. Kropotkinskaya, Bersenevskaya embankment 6, p. 3, 6th floor). Come!