Current systems—designed in an era of desktop and server applications and following decades-old design principles that are incongruous with today’s data-center hardware capabilities—are inadequate to meet two challenges: capitalize on hardware evolution and efficiently support key applications. I address these challenges in turn. First, I present storage system solutions to better support key HPC and cloud applications through redesigning file systems to provide key properties required by these applications, such as per-file optimization or consistency preservation across crashes. Second, I propose a new approach for designing the next generation of distributed systems through co-designing the system operations and network support for higher efficiency, scalability, and performance. I demonstrate the efficacy of this approach by designing a key-value storage system that leverages the capabilities of software-defined networks.

Samer Al-Kiswany is an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He obtained his Master’s degree and PhD from the University of British Columbia, Canada. His research interests are in distributed systems, high-performance computing, cloud computing, and operating systems. In particular, his work focuses on reconsidering systems designs in light of recent changes in cloud and HPC applications and platforms. He is a recipient of ten national and international awards, including the Killam Doctoral Fellowship, the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the IEEE George Michael HPC Fellowship.