Kun-Chi Chiang
Hsinchu County
Summary
Storage systems engineer with hands-on experience in high-performance storage architecture, NVMe, SPDK-based RAID, Ceph, and OpenStack. Experienced in designing and prototyping software-defined storage systems, optimizing I/O datapaths, and analyzing system-level performance from CPU and software-stack overhead to NVMe SSD behavior. Built and integrated block, file, and object storage services using Ceph RBD, CephFS, and RGW in an OpenStack private cloud environment. Proven ability to lead technical investigations, translate emerging storage technologies into working prototypes, and bridge research concepts with production-oriented system development.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
System Engineer
Macronix International
, HsinChu
04.2018 - Current
- System Integration: Built a Ceph–OpenStack private cloud environment from the ground up, progressing from initial platform exploration to full system deployment. Integrated multiple Ceph storage interfaces according to workload requirements, including Ceph RBD for VM images, CephFS for user file data, and Ceph RGW for user project libraries. Developed end-to-end expertise in storage architecture, cloud integration, service deployment, and system-level troubleshooting.
- Technical Leadership: Managed multiple team members and parallel technical tasks by prioritizing work based on urgency, resource availability, technical dependencies, and alignment with organizational goals.
- Technical Problem Solving: Developed alternative hardware- and software-based approaches to overcome limitations during early-stage product exploration. Emulated unavailable or emerging NVMe SSD characteristics to validate system concepts and demonstrate the potential benefits of next-generation storage devices before physical prototypes were available.
- RAID Simulation: Developed a Python-based RAID simulator using SNIA IOTTA workloads to analyze NVMe behavior under parity constraints, identify performance bottlenecks, and evaluate SSD-array design concepts during the early development stage.
- Flash Array Investigation: Led a team in developing system-level expertise in SPDK-based software RAID, focusing on CPU utilization, software-stack overhead, and parity optimization for all-flash arrays. Developed and validated a functional SPDK-based RAID-5 prototype, achieving improved single-server storage performance within one year.
- FMS Speaker: Proposed and evaluated system-level RAID-5 designs for emerging heterogeneous and multi-mode SSD architectures. Demonstrated their potential benefits through multiple design approaches and prototype evaluations. Presented the work as a technical speaker at the Future Memory and Storage (FMS) conference and prepared live booth demonstrations to communicate the technology and engage with researchers and industry professionals.
Production Engineer
Macronix International
10.2015 - 04.2018
- Production Support/Validation: Finish two products in early stage validation and improve its quality. Provide technical support to FAE with RMA cases.
- eMMC Validation: We validate eMMC in a embedded-system platform. All scripts were written by C language at u-boot stage. There are ~3000 test scripts for production validation which were built by our team. It still grows with RMA cases by translating command flow into scripts by Perl.
- Developed automation processes to enhance early validation flow for NOR flash validation.
Education
Ph.D. - Computer Science
National Tsing Hua University
Hsinchu, Taiwan08.2027
Master of Science - Electric Engineering
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences
Kaohsiung City, Taiwan08-2015
Skills
Storage & Systems: Software-Defined Storage, NVMe/NVMe-oF, SPDK, RAID, Ceph, RocksDB, Heterogeneous & Tiered Storage & cuFile/GDS
System Programming: C/C, Python, Shell Scripting, Linux, I/O Datapath Optimization
Cloud & Infrastructure: OpenStack, Ceph RBD/CephFS/RGW, RDMA/RoCE, Jenkins, Cobbler, Git
Performance & Benchmarking: fio, bdevperf, perf, SNIA IOTTA, Performance Profiling, Workload Characterization
System Engineering: Storage Architecture, System Integration, Performance Engineering, Research Prototyping, Technical Leadership
Custom
4,4,4,4
Timeline
System Engineer
Macronix International
04.2018 - Current
Production Engineer
Macronix International
10.2015 - 04.2018
Ph.D. - Computer Science
National Tsing Hua University
Master of Science - Electric Engineering
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences