Rack assembly providing high speed storage access for compute nodes to a storage server through a PCI express fabric

A network architecture, comprising:

• a plurality of rack assemblies, wherein each rack assembly in the plurality of rack assemblies includes:
• a storage server;
• a plurality of compute sleds configured as one or more streaming arrays, wherein each compute sled in the plurality of compute sleds includes one or more compute nodes, wherein a corresponding streaming array in the each rack assembly includes one or more compute sleds;
• a PCI Express (PCIe) fabric providing direct access to the storage server from each compute node in the plurality of compute sleds;
• and
• one or more array-level PCIe switches in the PCIe fabric, wherein each array-level PCIe switch is communicatively coupled to each of one or more compute nodes of a corresponding streaming array and to the storage server,
• wherein the storage server in the each rack assembly is shared by the one or more streaming arrays in the each rack assembly;
• a plurality of cluster switches coupled to the plurality of rack assemblies;
• and
• a management server coupled to the plurality of cluster switches, wherein the management server is configured for management of the plurality of rack assemblies.