diff --git a/distributed/shuffle/_buffer.py b/distributed/shuffle/_buffer.py
index e329d54dcce..127500720e2 100644
--- a/distributed/shuffle/_buffer.py
+++ b/distributed/shuffle/_buffer.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from typing import Any, Generic, TypeVar
 
 from distributed.metrics import time
-from distributed.shuffle._limiter import ResourceLimiter
+from distributed.shuffle._limiter import AbstractLimiter, NoopLimiter, ResourceLimiter
 from distributed.sizeof import sizeof
 
 logger = logging.getLogger("distributed.shuffle")
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ class ShardsBuffer(Generic[ShardType]):
     shards: defaultdict[str, _List[ShardType]]
     sizes: defaultdict[str, int]
     concurrency_limit: int
-    memory_limiter: ResourceLimiter | None
+    memory_limiter: AbstractLimiter
     diagnostics: dict[str, float]
     max_message_size: int
 
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ def __init__(
         self._exception = None
         self.concurrency_limit = concurrency_limit
         self._inputs_done = False
-        self.memory_limiter = memory_limiter
+        self.memory_limiter = memory_limiter or NoopLimiter()
         self.diagnostics: dict[str, float] = defaultdict(float)
         self._tasks = [
             asyncio.create_task(self._background_task())
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ def heartbeat(self) -> dict[str, Any]:
             "written": self.bytes_written,
             "read": self.bytes_read,
             "diagnostics": self.diagnostics,
-            "memory_limit": self.memory_limiter._maxvalue if self.memory_limiter else 0,
+            "memory_limit": self.memory_limiter._maxvalue,
         }
 
     async def process(self, id: str, shards: list[ShardType], size: int) -> None:
@@ -119,8 +119,7 @@ async def process(self, id: str, shards: list[ShardType], size: int) -> None:
                 "avg_duration"
             ] + 0.02 * (stop - start)
         finally:
-            if self.memory_limiter:
-                await self.memory_limiter.decrease(size)
+            await self.memory_limiter.decrease(size)
             self.bytes_memory -= size
 
     async def _process(self, id: str, shards: list[ShardType]) -> None:
@@ -198,15 +197,13 @@ async def write(self, data: dict[str, ShardType]) -> None:
         self.bytes_memory += total_batch_size
         self.bytes_total += total_batch_size
 
-        if self.memory_limiter:
-            self.memory_limiter.increase(total_batch_size)
+        self.memory_limiter.increase(total_batch_size)
         async with self._shards_available:
             for worker, shard in data.items():
                 self.shards[worker].append(shard)
                 self.sizes[worker] += sizes[worker]
             self._shards_available.notify()
-        if self.memory_limiter:
-            await self.memory_limiter.wait_for_available()
+        await self.memory_limiter.wait_for_available()
         del data
         assert total_batch_size
 
diff --git a/distributed/shuffle/_core.py b/distributed/shuffle/_core.py
index e7dd72c73cf..d0820249dc6 100644
--- a/distributed/shuffle/_core.py
+++ b/distributed/shuffle/_core.py
@@ -13,11 +13,17 @@
 from functools import partial
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Generic, NewType, TypeVar
 
+from dask import config
+
 from distributed.core import PooledRPCCall
 from distributed.exceptions import Reschedule
 from distributed.protocol import to_serialize
 from distributed.shuffle._comms import CommShardsBuffer
-from distributed.shuffle._disk import DiskShardsBuffer
+from distributed.shuffle._disk import (
+    DiskShardsBuffer,
+    FileShardsBuffer,
+    MemoryShardsBuffer,
+)
 from distributed.shuffle._exceptions import ShuffleClosedError
 from distributed.shuffle._limiter import ResourceLimiter
 
@@ -40,6 +46,8 @@
 
 
 class ShuffleRun(Generic[_T_partition_id, _T_partition_type]):
+    _disk_buffer: FileShardsBuffer
+
     def __init__(
         self,
         id: ShuffleId,
@@ -60,10 +68,13 @@ def __init__(
         self.scheduler = scheduler
         self.closed = False
 
-        self._disk_buffer = DiskShardsBuffer(
-            directory=directory,
-            memory_limiter=memory_limiter_disk,
-        )
+        if config.get("distributed.shuffle.p2p.stage_in_memory", False):
+            self._disk_buffer = MemoryShardsBuffer()
+        else:
+            self._disk_buffer = DiskShardsBuffer(
+                directory=directory,
+                memory_limiter=memory_limiter_disk,
+            )
 
         self._comm_buffer = CommShardsBuffer(
             send=self.send, memory_limiter=memory_limiter_comms
diff --git a/distributed/shuffle/_disk.py b/distributed/shuffle/_disk.py
index 2b3dc37beed..dfb3a5afe98 100644
--- a/distributed/shuffle/_disk.py
+++ b/distributed/shuffle/_disk.py
@@ -3,53 +3,68 @@
 import contextlib
 import pathlib
 import shutil
+from collections import defaultdict
+from io import BytesIO
+from types import TracebackType
+from typing import BinaryIO
 
 from distributed.shuffle._buffer import ShardsBuffer
 from distributed.shuffle._limiter import ResourceLimiter
 from distributed.utils import log_errors
 
 
-class DiskShardsBuffer(ShardsBuffer):
-    """Accept, buffer, and write many small objects to many files
-
-    This takes in lots of small objects, writes them to a local directory, and
-    then reads them back when all writes are complete.  It buffers these
-    objects in memory so that it can optimize disk access for larger writes.
-
-    **State**
-
-    -   shards: dict[str, list[bytes]]
-
-        This is our in-memory buffer of data waiting to be written to files.
-
-    -   sizes: dict[str, int]
-
-        The size of each list of shards.  We find the largest and write data from that buffer
+class FileShardsBuffer(ShardsBuffer):
+    """An abstract buffering object backed by a "file"
 
     Parameters
     ----------
-    directory : str or pathlib.Path
-        Where to write and read data.  Ideally points to fast disk.
     memory_limiter : ResourceLimiter, optional
-        Limiter for in-memory buffering (at most this much data)
-        before writes to disk occur. If the incoming data that has yet
-        to be processed exceeds this limit, then the buffer will block
-        until below the threshold. See :meth:`.write` for the
-        implementation of this scheme.
+        Resource limiter.
+
+    Notes
+    -----
+    Currently, a concurrency limit of one is hard-coded.
     """
 
-    def __init__(
-        self,
-        directory: str | pathlib.Path,
-        memory_limiter: ResourceLimiter | None = None,
-    ):
+    def __init__(self, memory_limiter: ResourceLimiter | None = None) -> None:
         super().__init__(
             memory_limiter=memory_limiter,
-            # Disk is not able to run concurrently atm
+            # FileShardsBuffer not able to run concurrently
             concurrency_limit=1,
         )
-        self.directory = pathlib.Path(directory)
-        self.directory.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+
+    def writer(self, id: int | str) -> BinaryIO:
+        """Return a file-like object for writing in append-mode.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        id
+            The shard id (will normalised to a string)
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        An object implementing the BinaryIO interface.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError("Abstract class can't provide this")
+
+    def reader(self, id: int | str) -> BinaryIO:
+        """Return a file-like object for reading from byte-0.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        id
+            The shard id (will be normalised to a string)
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        An object implementing the BinaryIO interface.
+
+        Raises
+        ------
+        FileNotFoundError
+            If no shard with requested id exists.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError("Abstract class can't provide this")
 
     async def _process(self, id: str, shards: list[bytes]) -> None:
         """Write one buffer to file
@@ -68,9 +83,7 @@ async def _process(self, id: str, shards: list[bytes]) -> None:
         with log_errors():
             # Consider boosting total_size a bit here to account for duplication
             with self.time("write"):
-                with open(
-                    self.directory / str(id), mode="ab", buffering=100_000_000
-                ) as f:
+                with self.writer(id) as f:
                     for shard in shards:
                         f.write(shard)
 
@@ -82,9 +95,7 @@ def read(self, id: int | str) -> bytes:
 
         try:
             with self.time("read"):
-                with open(
-                    self.directory / str(id), mode="rb", buffering=100_000_000
-                ) as f:
+                with self.reader(id) as f:
                     data = f.read()
                     size = f.tell()
         except FileNotFoundError:
@@ -96,6 +107,94 @@ def read(self, id: int | str) -> bytes:
         else:
             raise KeyError(id)
 
+
+class _PersistentBytesIO(BytesIO):
+    """A BytesIO object that does not close itself when used in a with block."""
+
+    def __enter__(self) -> _PersistentBytesIO:
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(
+        self,
+        exc_type: type[BaseException] | None,
+        exc_val: BaseException | None,
+        exc_tb: TracebackType | None,
+    ) -> None:
+        pass
+
+
+class MemoryShardsBuffer(FileShardsBuffer):
+    """Accept and buffer many small objects into memory.
+
+    This implements in-memory "file" buffering with no resource limit
+    with the same interface as :class:`DiskShardsBuffer`.
+
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self) -> None:
+        super().__init__(memory_limiter=None)
+        self._memory_buffers: defaultdict[str, _PersistentBytesIO] = defaultdict(
+            _PersistentBytesIO
+        )
+
+    def writer(self, id: int | str) -> BinaryIO:
+        buf = self._memory_buffers[str(id)]
+        buf.seek(buf.tell())
+        return buf
+
+    def reader(self, id: int | str) -> BinaryIO:
+        key = str(id)
+        if key not in self._memory_buffers:
+            raise FileNotFoundError(f"Shard with {id=} is unknown")
+        buf = self._memory_buffers[str(id)]
+        buf.seek(0)
+        return buf
+
+
+class DiskShardsBuffer(FileShardsBuffer):
+    """Accept, buffer, and write many small objects to many files
+
+    This takes in lots of small objects, writes them to a local directory, and
+    then reads them back when all writes are complete.  It buffers these
+    objects in memory so that it can optimize disk access for larger writes.
+
+    **State**
+
+    -   shards: dict[str, list[bytes]]
+
+        This is our in-memory buffer of data waiting to be written to files.
+
+    -   sizes: dict[str, int]
+
+        The size of each list of shards.  We find the largest and write data from that buffer
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    directory : str or pathlib.Path
+        Where to write and read data.  Ideally points to fast disk.
+    memory_limiter : ResourceLimiter, optional
+        Limiter for in-memory buffering (at most this much data)
+        before writes to disk occur. If the incoming data that has yet
+        to be processed exceeds this limit, then the buffer will block
+        until below the threshold. See :meth:`.write` for the
+        implementation of this scheme.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        directory: str | pathlib.Path,
+        memory_limiter: ResourceLimiter | None = None,
+    ):
+        super().__init__(memory_limiter=memory_limiter)
+        self.directory = pathlib.Path(directory)
+        self.directory.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+
+    def writer(self, id: int | str) -> BinaryIO:
+        return open(self.directory / str(id), mode="ab", buffering=100_000_000)
+
+    def reader(self, id: int | str) -> BinaryIO:
+        return open(self.directory / str(id), mode="rb", buffering=100_000_000)
+
     async def close(self) -> None:
         await super().close()
         with contextlib.suppress(FileNotFoundError):
diff --git a/distributed/shuffle/_limiter.py b/distributed/shuffle/_limiter.py
index f3591b53f7f..b6550a1551c 100644
--- a/distributed/shuffle/_limiter.py
+++ b/distributed/shuffle/_limiter.py
@@ -1,10 +1,38 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import asyncio
+import math
+from typing import Protocol
 
 from distributed.metrics import time
 
 
+class AbstractLimiter(Protocol):
+    @property
+    def _maxvalue(self) -> int | float:
+        ...
+
+    def available(self) -> int | float:
+        """How far can the value be increased before blocking"""
+        ...
+
+    def free(self) -> bool:
+        """Return True if nothing has been acquired / the limiter is in a neutral state"""
+        ...
+
+    async def wait_for_available(self) -> None:
+        """Block until the counter drops below maxvalue"""
+        ...
+
+    def increase(self, value: int) -> None:
+        """Increase the internal counter by value"""
+        ...
+
+    async def decrease(self, value: int) -> None:
+        """Decrease the internal counter by value"""
+        ...
+
+
 class ResourceLimiter:
     """Limit an abstract resource
 
@@ -70,3 +98,29 @@ async def decrease(self, value: int) -> None:
         self._acquired -= value
         async with self._condition:
             self._condition.notify_all()
+
+
+# Used to simplify code in shardsbuffer
+class NoopLimiter:
+    """A no-op resource limiter."""
+
+    _maxvalue = math.inf
+
+    def __repr__(self) -> str:
+        return f"<NoopLimiter maxvalue: {math.inf} available: {math.inf}>"
+
+    def free(self) -> bool:
+        return True
+
+    def available(self) -> float:
+        return self._maxvalue
+
+    def increase(self, value: int) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    async def decrease(self, value: int) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    async def wait_for_available(self) -> None:
+        """Don't block and return immediately"""
+        pass