Recent Events \\ Research Interests \\ Teaching \\ Brief Bio \\ Hotlist \\ Publications

Greg Ganger

Recent Events:

• hmm, updated every few years, whether needed or not... kids will do that to you, I guess.
• Everyone who thought "Greg never takes a vacation" is now proven wrong... family vacation to Hawaii, in July 2012, complete with surfing (really!). Check out a few action shots of Gangers getting it done.
• We just launched a new research center focused on cloud computing. Check out the Intel Science and Technology Center for Cloud Computing (ISTC-CC).
• Our storage systems course is being offerred regularly in the Spring terms (next is 2011).
• In Fall 2010, I taught a PhD-level special topics class (it'd been awhile) on Data-intensive and Cloud computing and storage.
• In July 2010, I testified before Congress about cloud computing in a hearing on the benefits and risks of moving federal IT to the cloud. It was a very interesting experience.
• In 2010, I was named Jatras Professor of ECE. An overwhelming honor.
• We've established (or are in the process of establishing) several clouds at CMU, including the CMU vCloud, an OpenCirrus site, and an OpenCloud site.
• Tim turned twelve in 2012. Unreal how time flies.
• Will turned 10 in 2012. Naturally, he and his brother fight all the time ;).
• Tim and Will make it tough to keep web pages up to date, but lots of research progress is happening too. Check out my publications page for recent and previous papers.

Research Interests

I have broad research interests in computer systems, including storage/file systems, distributed systems, OS, and computer security. Most of my current research explores these topics in the broad context of storage systems and large-scale infrastructures within CMU's Parallel Data Lab (PDL), for which I serve as Director.

See the PDL pages for more current information, since this page gets updated rately, but... Together with industry collaborators and other members of CMU's Parallel Data Lab (PDL) and CMU's CyLab, my students and I are currently pursuing several topics of research:

• Cloud computing and data-intensive computing, and especially their intersection.
• Self-* Storage Systems, which automate and simplify storage administration in clusters of self-configuring, self-organizing, self-tuning, self-healing, self-managing, etc. storage servers.
• Survivable distributed storage (PASIS) that provide data availability and security even after some successful breakins.

Other recent projects include:

• Better Security via Smarter Devices. (which, among other things, includes self-securing storage devices that protect their contents from compromised OSes).
• Automated database storage management (Fates) that matches data layouts and access patterns to device-specific characteristics to increase performance and predictability.
• Characterization and simulation of storage systems. (Two useful side-effects of this work have been the publicly-available DiskSim storage system simulator and the DIXtrac-enabled database of validated disk parameters for it.)
• Design, implementation and use of Systems of Active Components, including "intelligent" NICs, Active Storage Networks, and Active Disks.
• Extracting and using free bandwidth from busy disks.
• MEMS-based storage devices in computer systems.
• Dynamic function placement for data-intensive cluster computing via the ABACUS runtime system.
• Design and implementation of biometric-enhanced authentication systems.
• Design and implementation of application-level networking.
• Exokernel-based operating systems.
• Improved general-purpose file system support for small file I/O.
• Design, implementation and use of extensible I/O software. (This is, I think, the most interesting subcomponent of extensible operating systems, like exokernel-based systems)
• Construction of high-performance network servers (e.g., WWW servers).
• Implementation and use of application-controlled storage management.

Teaching

Currently on a cycle primarily consisting of 15-213/18-243 in Fall semesters and 15-746/18-746 in Spring semesters.

In Spring 2001, Dave Nagle and I created a new storage systems course (18-546). It has, of course, evolved over the years. We continue to teach it annually, now as 15-746/18-746.

In Fall 2000, I was drafted at the last minute to teach 15-712 (graduate OS and Distributed Systems). It was a lot of fun, and I taught it again in Fall 2001 and Fall 2002.

Brief Bio (in reverse order)

In addition to research and teaching, I enjoy spending time with my wife, Jenny, playing various sports (basketball, in particular), and occasionally sleeping. Of course, with the arrivals of Tim and Will, all of that became irrelevant.

I spent 8/95 thru 11/97 as a postdoc in Frans Kaashoek's research group (PDOS) at the MIT Lab for Computer Science. During that time, I participated in the design and development of the exokernel operating system. I also pursued (with others, of course) a number of specific projects, most of which are mentioned above.

In a previous life (i.e., prior to August 1995), I was a graduate student in Yale Patt's research group in the University of Michigan's Advanced Computer Architecture Lab . Although the group's main focus is on compilation for and implementation of high-performance processors, my research was focused on file systems and storage subsystem architecture.

I earned all of my collegiate degrees (B.S., 1991, M.S., 1993, Ph.D., 1995) from the University of Michigan. I grew up in Michigan (Troy, post-1980) and Northern Ohio (Sylvania, pre-1980).