NVMe over TCP
NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP) is a network protocol that enables the NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) storage interface to operate over standard TCP/IP networks, allowing remote access to high-performance NVMe storage devices. It extends the benefits of NVMe—such as low latency, high throughput, and parallelism—across data center networks without requiring specialized hardware like RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access). This protocol is part of the NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) family, designed to disaggregate storage from compute in modern cloud and enterprise environments.
Developers should learn NVMe/TCP when building or managing distributed storage systems, cloud-native applications, or data-intensive workloads that require scalable, low-latency access to remote NVMe storage. It is particularly useful in environments where deploying RDMA-capable infrastructure is impractical or costly, as it leverages existing TCP/IP networks. Use cases include hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), storage area networks (SANs), and Kubernetes persistent volumes for stateful applications.