Overview
The purpose of the HotStorage workshop is to provide a forum for the cutting edge in storage research, where researchers can exchange ideas and engage in discussions with their colleagues. The workshop seeks submissions that explore longer-term challenges and opportunities for the storage research community. Submissions should propose new research directions, advocate non-traditional approaches, or report on noteworthy actual experience in an emerging area. We particularly value submissions that effectively advocate fresh, unorthodox, unexpected, controversial, or counterintuitive ideas for advancing the state of the art.

Submissions will be judged on their originality, technical merit, topical relevance, and likelihood of leading to insightful discussions that will influence future storage systems research. In keeping with the goals of the HotStorage workshop, the review process will heavily favor submissions that are forward looking and open ended, as opposed to those that summarize mature work or are intended as a stepping stone to a top-tier conference publication in the short term.

New This Year: WACI Session
To provide a venue for ideas that are truly unconventional, controversial, or much too early for even a workshop paper, we are introducing a "Wild and Crazy Ideas (WACI)" session at HotStorage '17. Authors are invited to submit a 1-page abstract describing their WACI. Authors are encouraged to be creative in the way they present these forward-looking ideas. Accepted WACIs will be presented orally and the abstracts included in the workshop program.

What to Expect from HotStorage
HotStorage places a strong emphasis on early-stage ideas. As a workshop, our role is to provide a place where novel ideas at their nascent stages can see the light of day long before they are ready for publication at the various "conferences of record." A good way to think about this is that if you are only a few months away from submitting to FAST, NSDI, EuroSys, VLDB, OSDI, SOSP, etc. you are probably already past the sweet spot for HotStorage.

The program committee also encourages more active participation from authors, presenters, and attendees. A key element of this is a moderated discussion on each presented paper where contributions from workshop participants are highly encouraged. We'd like to hear from people about additional context, issues and prior work—not just ask questions. To allow this level of engagement, the accepted papers will be available for download at least a week in advance so participants can come prepared.

Topics of Interest
HotStorage '17 welcomes submissions on any of the following general topics. Because of the nature of the workshop, this list is not exhaustive. We also welcome submissions on cross-disciplinary topics broadly related to storage systems, data management, and applications.

Application-specific storage
* Archival storage
* Big-data storage
* Cloud storage
* Caching, tiering, and replication
* Distributed storage and data consistency
* Energy-efficient storage
* File system design
* Key-value and NoSQL storage
* Mobile storage
* New and complex memory hierarchies
* Performance modeling and prediction for storage
* Programming models for data management
* Quality of service for storage
* Security of storage
* Sensors, home, and IoT storage
* Software-defined storage
* Solid-state storage
* Storage and server convergence
* Workshop Details

HotStorage '17 will be a two-day workshop. At least one author of each accepted paper must attend the workshop to present the paper. Presentation details and guidelines will be communicated to the authors of the accepted papers. Authors of accepted papers will also be expected to prepare a poster summarizing their submission to be presented as part of a HotStorage '17 poster session.

Paper Submission Instructions
Regular submissions must be no longer than five (5) two-column pages excluding references. WACI submissions should be one (1) two-column page including all content. Papers should be submitted electronically via the Web submission form, which will be available here soon. Submissions should be PDF documents that are viewable by standard tools. Submissions must follow the USENIX formatting guidelines: 10-point type on 12-point (single-spaced) leading, with the text block being no more than 6.5" wide by 9" deep. See the detailed formatting requirements.
Submissions to HotStorage '17 may not be under consideration for any other venue. Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details. Questions? Contact your program co-chairs, hotstorage17chairs@usenix.org, or the USENIX office, submissionspolicy@usenix.org.

The review process is not blind. The names and affiliations of the authors should be included on the first page. The names of the reviewers, however, will remain anonymous. Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX HotStorage '17 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

All papers will be available online to registered attendees before the workshop. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org. The papers will be available online to everyone beginning on the first day of the workshop.