Since part of this work was originally done back in 2013 it seams like some vendors have started experimenting with hard drives with direct Ethernet connection. Some folks I know have even gotten access to prototype models to hack on. This is fascinating to me because I love messing around with distributed systems and I think this will open up a whole new world of possibilities.
This article is the reason why I read HN. I admire the author's persistence and cleverness, but also the writeup is very good and gives a clear glimpse into each step. Bravo!
