August 7, 2009
PDFCase Study
GFS: Evolution on Fast-forward
A discussion between Kirk McKusick and Sean Quinlan about the origin and evolution of the Google File System.
Actionable items
I did spend a day to read the paper. I just could not believe that it is so important for me to read the conversation instead of formula or data structure algorithm. I should have good time to learn more later about GFS.
To explore the reasoning behind a few of the more crucial initial design decisions as well as some
of the incremental adaptations that have been made since then, ACM asked Sean Quinlan to pull
back the covers on the changing file-system requirements and the evolving thinking at Google.
Since Quinlan served as the GFS tech leader for a couple of years and continues now as a principal
engineer at Google, he’s in a good position to offer that perspective. As a grounding point beyond
the Googleplex, ACM asked Kirk McKusick to lead the discussion. He is best known for his work on
BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) Unix, including the original design of the Berkeley FFS (Fast
File System).
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