At KubeCon 2021, Dell Technologies announced the availability of Dell EMC Container Storage Modules (CSM). Among other things, the modules improve the efficacy of Dell EMC solutions as storage foundations for industrial Kubernetes environments.
The new Dell EMC Container Storage Modules are available via GitHub. The suite serves as an extension of the Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers that govern storage in most of today’s Kubernetes environments.
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CSI provides a basic protocol for storage volumes and snapshots in Kubernetes environments. Large storage service providers customarily develop this protocol into drivers that are tailored towards hardware and processes that are unique to their services.
Dell EMC also has a proprietary CSI driver, but is seemingly dissatisfied with the integrations that the protocol provides with its storage technology. Hence, Dell EMC Container Storage Modules are introduced.
Complementing CSI
CSM should complement where CSI is lacking. With the introduction, Dell EMC hopes to enable its customers to more effectively duplicate data from Kubernetes environments across different data centers, promote security with role-based access control, and prevent and recover disasters.
Additionally, CSM opens the doors for more efficient use of Dell EMC technology for the storage needs of Kubernetes environments. The modules inject Kubernetes with the code required to connect to PowerMax (NVMe storage), PowerStore (flash storage), PowerScale (NAS), PowerFlex (software-defined storage) and Unity XT (flash and hybrid storage).
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