Diskless Architecture for Modern Data Centers: Challenges, Technologies, and Industry Practices

The "Data Center Diskless Architecture Whitepaper" systematically reviews the background and challenges of data‑center architecture transformation and proposes a new Diskless architecture that decouples storage from compute.

Historically, computer systems evolved from tightly coupled storage‑compute mainframes to layered storage technologies (tape, floppy, HDD, SSD), gradually separating storage from servers. Modern data centers face capacity utilization and storage efficiency challenges, prompting the adoption of high‑performance hardware such as DPUs, RDMA, and CXL to meet demands for reliability, performance, and efficiency.

Traditional server‑based distributed storage solutions address some efficiency issues but still suffer from mismatched data‑retention and server upgrade cycles, high CPU overhead for I/O processing, heavy storage protocols causing bandwidth loss, and CPU‑centric data paths that increase latency.

Diskless architecture emerges from advances in compute, storage, and networking technologies, forming a three‑layered system composed of storage modules, compute modules, and network modules. It features diskless servers, high‑density storage systems, dedicated data‑processing units, and high‑throughput data buses, breaking hardware boundaries and enabling independent scaling and flexible sharing.

Key technical pillars include scenario‑aware data reduction (variable‑length deduplication, compression), compute‑storage separation via I/O bypass (direct NIC/DPU to disk paths), and disk‑module collaboration (integrated media and controller chips) to improve efficiency, reduce latency, and lower power consumption.

High‑throughput networking options (CXL Fabric, NoF, IP, RoCE) support both direct and pooled connections, enabling massive inter‑server connectivity and scalable data‑center interconnects.

Industry practice shows storage‑vendor, system‑vendor, and NIC‑vendor collaborations to provide EBOF/JBOF solutions, micro‑storage with data reduction, and DPU‑centric ecosystems, accelerating the adoption of Diskless architecture.

Market forecasts predict a near‑60% annual growth in demand for flexible, pooled architectures, reaching a $3.4 billion market in 2023, indicating that Diskless architecture will become a dominant trend for future data centers.