Abstract
The need for novel data analysis is urgent in the face of a data deluge from
modern applications. Traditional approaches to data analysis incur significant
data movement costs, moving data back and forth between the storage system and
the processor. Emerging Active Flash devices enable processing on the flash,
where the data already resides. An array of such Active Flash devices allows us
to revisit how analysis workflows interact with storage systems. By seamlessly
blending together the flash storage and data analysis, we create an analysis
workflow-aware storage system, AnalyzeThis. Our guiding principle is that
analysis-awareness be deeply ingrained in each and every layer of the storage,
elevating data analyses as first-class citizens, and transforming AnalyzeThis
into a potent analytics-aware appliance. We implement the AnalyzeThis storage
system atop an emulation platform of the Active Flash array. Our results
indicate that AnalyzeThis is viable, expediting workflow execution and
minimizing data movement.