From black coffee to block storage – here’s how my journey into deep tech began.

Introduction

If you had asked me a year ago what "storage" meant, I would’ve said, “a hard drive or maybe Google Drive?” That was the extent of it.

Today, I work at IBM in the Storage division, contributing to large-scale enterprise systems like Spectrum Scale and Erasure Code Edition (ECE). It’s been a shift — not just in the kind of tech I work on, but in how I think about systems, complexity, and the kind of engineer I want to become.

This blog is my space to document everything I’m learning, share it in simple words, and hopefully make deep tech feel a little less intimidating to others starting out.

Who Am I?

I’m Aachal, a fresher at IBM, working in storage infrastructure. I didn’t come in with a strong systems background. In fact, I Googled “distributed storage” on my first day.

But that’s exactly why I wanted to share this journey — not from a place of expertise, but from the ground up. No polish. No overthinking. Just an honest build-up of knowledge, one concept at a time.

What helped me move forward?

Asking questions, even the “dumb” ones
Listening to mentors, shadowing their approach
Creating my own learning map
And yes — lots of black coffee

So... What Is Storage Really?

Storage is not just physical devices or external drives.

It’s how systems manage, retrieve, and scale data. It's what makes it possible for Netflix to stream, banks to store transaction histories, and cloud platforms to work across the world.

It includes things like:

Block storage – fast, low-level data access
File storage – like a structured folder system
Object storage – flexible, great for unstructured data

At its core, storage is the memory of the internet. And it’s everywhere.

My Day 1 at IBM

Joining IBM and getting placed in the Spectrum Scale and ECE team was a mix of excitement and confusion.

I didn’t know what to expect. Acronyms were flying, and tools I’d never heard of were now part of my job. But here’s the thing — it didn’t stay overwhelming for long.

Because once I stopped pretending I knew things, and just asked, read, experimented — it all started to make sense.

Why This Blog Exists

I’m not here to write like an expert. I’m here to write like someone who’s learning — seriously, consistently, and publicly.

My goal is to:

Get strong at system-level thinking and backend fundamentals
Build a personal brand that’s authentic and deeply technical

And most importantly — to enjoy the process of figuring things out.

What’s Next?

I’ll be posting weekly — breaking down storage concepts, OS fundamentals, small side projects, and sharing how I navigate this field.

If you’re just starting out in storage, or figuring out systems from scratch — I get it. You're not alone. Let’s learn together.

Thanks for reading.

How I Got into Storage: A Fresher’s Journey at IBM