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Remember when a hard drive that could hold a terabyte<\/i> of data was a big deal? Well, we\u2019re now in an era where peta-, exa- and even zetta-bytes are the bytes of the day, and it turns out it\u2019s hard to fit that many zeroes on a hard drive. That\u2019s where Dr. Ant Rowstron<\/a>, Deputy Lab Director of Microsoft Research Cambridge, and Mark Russinovich (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Chief Technical Officer of Azure, come in. Their respective teams are working on paradigm-breaking solutions to give us phenomenal storage power in an itty-bitty living space.<\/p>\n Today, Ant and Mark discuss their roles in the development of new optical technologies, like Project Silica<\/a>, for cloud-scale storage demands, and talk about the Optics for the Cloud Research Alliance<\/a>, an exciting new collaboration between academic researchers and MSR. They also explain how just the right mix of innovation and engineering can make the cloud more powerful and less expensive to use and, at the same time, deliver \u201cforever\u201d storage that\u2019s both dishwasher and microwave safe!<\/p>\n Host: <\/span><\/b>Welcome to another two-guest episode of the Microsoft Research Podcast, where we\u2019re exploring the latest in disruptive technologies for data storage in the cloud. In an era in which we\u2019re pushing the very limits of our current storage technologies, who better than the CTO of Azure and the Deputy Lab Director of MSR Cambridge to give us the lowdown on the promise of new technologies like quartz glass for storing \u2013 and protecting \u2013 all things digital?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Host: <\/span><\/b>You\u2019re listening to the Microsoft Research Podcast, a show that brings you closer to the cutting-edge of technology research and the scientists behind it. I\u2019m your host, Gretchen Huizinga.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: Remember when<\/span><\/b> the<\/span><\/b> hard drive that could hold a <\/span><\/b>terabyte<\/span><\/i><\/b> of data was a big deal? Well, we\u2019re now in an era where peta-, exa- and even zetta-bytes are the bytes of the day, and it turns out it\u2019s hard to fit that many zeroes on a hard drive. That\u2019s where Dr. Ant Rowstron, Deputy Lab Director of Microsoft Research Cambridge, and Mark Russinovich, Chief Technical Officer of Azure, come in. Their respective teams are working on paradigm-breaking solutions to give us phenomenal storage power in an itty-bitty living space.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Today, Ant and Mark discuss their roles in the development of new optical technologies, like Project Silica, for cloud-scale storage demands, and talk about the Optics for the Cloud Research Alliance, an exciting new collaboration between academic researchers and MSR. They also explain how just the right mix of innovation and engineering can make the cloud more powerful and less expensive to use and, at the same time, deliver \u201cforever\u201d storage that\u2019s both dishwasher and microwave safe! <\/span><\/b>That and much more on this episode of the Microsoft Research Podcast.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: The word excited is overused, but there\u2019s really not a better word for how I feel about the guests I have in the booth today. First, we have, all the way from Cambridge, UK, Dr. Ant Rowstron, who<\/span><\/b>\u2019<\/span><\/b>s the Deputy Lab Director of Microsoft Research Cambridge<\/span><\/b>,<\/span><\/b> and with him, I have Mark Russinovich, who is the Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft Azure. Welcome Ant and Mark, Mark and Ant!<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Ant Rowstron<\/span>: Thank you.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Mark Russinovich<\/span>: Thanks.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: Your titles give us a picture of who you are at Microsoft, but they don\u2019t really say what you do. <\/span><\/b>And <\/span><\/b>I\u2019d like each of you to give us a little more detail on what gets you up in the morning. Maybe a sort of elevator pitch o<\/span><\/b>n<\/span><\/b> what you do and why you do it<\/span><\/b>?<\/span><\/b> Ant, why don\u2019t you give us a start here.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Ant Rowstron<\/span>: Okay. So<\/span>, you know,<\/span> basically, as Deputy Lab Director in Cambridge, I come in every day and I get to work on cloud infrastructure and future technologies for the cloud. <\/span>And i<\/span>t\u2019s really fun. We\u2019re doing a lot of stuff <\/span>we\u2019re using a lot of high tech stuff we\u2019re doing a lot of stuff <\/span>around optics, <\/span>femtosecond <\/span>lasers and things like that. And so, <\/span>yeah, <\/span>I<\/span> come in every morning and I get to play with the greatest tech and try to create technologies that will help the cloud in the future.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: As a Deputy Lab Director, are you doing research yourself in addition to <\/span><\/b>sort of <\/span><\/b>overseeing the lab work?<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Ant Rowstron<\/span>: <\/span>I, yeah, so <\/span>I try to spend some of my time each week actually doing research as well, and I\u2019m very involved in a small number of the projects, and<\/span> <\/span>I help<\/span> <\/span>oversee a number of the other projects as well in the group.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: As some people say, to keep your research muscle strong.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Ant Rowstron<\/span>: Yeah, that\u2019s right. That\u2019s right. It\u2019s the most exciting thing<\/span>. It\u2019s <\/span>the bit I really enjoy, coming in and doing stuff.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: Mark, what do you do?<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Mark Russinovich<\/span>: So, my role is leading technical strategy and architecture for Azure, our cloud platform. So, every day is completely different. It could be meeting with customers, meeting with internal partner teams, meeting with engineers deep on Teams, writing papers, reading papers, meeting with analysts. I mean, every day is a new adventure.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: So as Chief Technical Officer, how technical do you get? Do you get into the weeds?<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Mark Russinovich<\/span>: I get into the weeds, yeah. That\u2019s the fun part. <\/span>Um, s<\/span>o, <\/span>I think that that is really a really great part of the job is that I can be at a very high-level<\/span>,<\/span> like strategy, <\/span>like <\/span>directions, trends<\/span>,<\/span> and then get down into implementation details. In fact, I\u2019m involved with a couple of other projects at MSR Cambridge at a very deep technical level.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: Well<\/span><\/b>,<\/span><\/b> perhaps to some of our listeners, you aren\u2019t obvious booth mates, so let\u2019s explain why you are both here in the booth together. There\u2019s an interesting story of how Azure met Optics <\/span><\/b>during a disruptive technology review where researchers present the work they<\/span><\/b>\u2019<\/span><\/b>re doing to senior leadership team members. <\/span><\/b>How did that go down? Ant, why don\u2019t you go first.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Ant Rowstron<\/span>: Okay. So, I mean,<\/span> you know,<\/span> it\u2019s really interesting. We\u2019d been working with the Azure <\/span>S<\/span>torage guys for some time on some storage projects, looking at trying to use traditional technologies to sort of store long-term data. And it had got to the stage where I think, you know, both sides had realized that we pushed the existing technologies to the limits<\/span>,<\/span> and both sides were looking around for new technologies. And<\/span> <\/span>it happened that someone in the Azure storage side and us both saw a <\/span>sort of a <\/span>news feed article about a breakthrough at Southampton and how to store data in glass. And we both approached it from very different angles. The Azure storage <\/span>side, that person flew over to Southampton and had a look at it. We were there downloading papers trying to read them, trying to understand them. As a computer scientist, it was quite hard. And then we started to talk about how the technology could be taken forward<\/span>s a<\/span>nd trying to convince the company that this was going to be something to be worth doing. We started getting ready for this disruptive technology review. We reached out to Mark to help us because it<\/span> was<\/span> sort of key to get both sides really bought<\/span> <\/span>in to what was happening.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: <\/span><\/b>Mmm<\/span><\/b>-hmm.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Ant Rowstron<\/span>: And then we got the opportunity to present it to the SLT and Jason was there and you were there and that really led to the point where people said, hey, let\u2019s make it work together, let\u2019s work collaboratively between Microsoft Research and Azure <\/span>S<\/span>torage to get it forward. And so that\u2019s how\u2026<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Mark Russinovich<\/span>: Yeah. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Ant Rowstron<\/span>: \u2026Mark got involved and<\/span> <\/span>how it sort of got going.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Mark Russinovich<\/span>: Yeah, in fact, I mean, I remember, so meeting with Ant before this where I got my first overview of what the project was all about and the promise of it, th<\/span>e<\/span> disruption technology review happened. The SLT was like<\/span>,<\/span> this looks like really exciting stuff. But that alone isn\u2019t enough to actually cause things to go forward. What happened after that is that me, Ant, Douglas Philips who is in charge of storage, and <\/span>Jason Zander, head of Azure<\/span>,<\/span> <\/span>met together to talk about how we wanted to take it forward. And we\u2019d kind of estimated with MSR Cambridge the resources required and the amount of money required to actually get the thing moving to a point where it could potentially intersect with production in Azure at some point.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Host: <\/span><\/b>Mmm<\/span><\/b>-hmm.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Mark Russinovich<\/span>: <\/span>And t<\/span>hat was the go big or go home. Either we had to commit<\/span>,<\/span> and jointly fund it with MSR Cambridge<\/span>,<\/span> or it just wasn\u2019t going to happen. And then we decided to do that.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\nRelated:<\/h3>\n
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