More Enterprises Choosing Solid-State Drives for Storage

September 10, 2012 By News Staff

An increasing number of enterprise IT shops are looking to newer, faster solid-state drive (SSD) technology for data storage, SearchSolidStateStorage.com reported. Prices of SSDs have been in steady decline over the past 12 months and prices on traditional hard disk drives remain relatively high even though flooding that began last summer has stopped in Thailand, where many SSDs are made.

Just a couple years ago solid-state drives were considered a luxury item, but now budget-conscious organizations with high read/write workloads are weighing the option of an upgrade to SSD. Ron Wilson, a technologist supervisor at Delaware Health and Social Services, is among those considering such an upgrade. "Our Tier 1 right now is just 15,000 rpm drives," Wilson said. "A lot more SQL databases and an increased need for performance with these new applications may drive the need for us to go SSD."

It would appear Wilson isn't alone, as 72 percent of 1,014 IT managers surveyed in a recent poll by International Data Corp. said they either use of plan to use SSDs in their data centers within the next 12 months. While most of those polled fell into the “plan to use” category, the increased interest and decreasing price point indicate an industry trend.

To read an in-depth report about organizations that are switching to SSD, read the full article.

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Why SSDs Make So Much Sense

Comments

Gary Davis | Commented September 11, 2012

The important point is that choosing to use solid state storage does not mean it is an either/or decision. Hard disk drives (HDD) will remain the backbone of storage in the enterprise for many years to come. The cost difference at the very best comparisons are still 10X for NAND flash (MLC, prices go up for the more reliable SLC). Today, flash based storage accounts for less than 4% of total storage capacity (TerraBytes) shipped today and is not expected to gain in the next few years. In fact, flash is at overcapacity at present, which may deepen as the global economy weakens further.