Flash Storage: Ready For The Next Level Of Adoption?
By Rick Delgado, contributing writer
All the signs point to a rising technology in the enterprise storage market: flash storage. This shouldn’t be a surprise to any business that’s been paying attention as flash storage has steadily gained traction over the last few years. While the technology isn’t necessarily a new one, flash storage’s popularity has only recently grown to more impressive heights, even to the point where it is competing directly with hard disk drives for dominance in the market, something that just didn’t seem likely a decade ago. This has many people wondering if flash is set to make that next giant leap in overall business adoption. Yes, flash storage has made significant gains in recent years, but hitting that next level requires more barriers to be overcome and willing participants to come onboard. From the indications among businesses, it appears flash storage will indeed make that leap successfully.
When one mentions the indications and signs of flash’s readiness for reaching the next level of global adoption, one needs to turn to the international market. While businesses in the U.S. have been rapidly incorporating flash arrays of some sort into their IT operations, Europe and other regions have been more hesitant, but that won’t last for long. One report shows that while external storage system sales have taken a nosedive in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the market for all-flash arrays has grown by 113 percent in those areas. Many experts are even predicting that in Europe, all-flash arrays will be part of the entire storage business by 2019, with all primary workloads actually being carried by flash by the year 2020.
More predictions for global flash dominance follow a similar pattern. Right now, data centers all over the world are largely dominated by hard disk drives, but that may soon change. Research from Wikibon shows that flash storage could reach the same level of shipments as disk storage by 2018. After that, it’s basically all flash, all the time, with the amount of flash memory shipped predicted to be a thousand times greater by 2026. From the research and statistics, flash storage is ready to make its mark on the world by obliterating the competition, but understanding why remains an important part of future business strategy.
Flash storage hasn’t reached its current levels by accident or coincidence. Businesses are coming to realize the advantages flash offers, but it wasn’t always that way. For many years, enterprises had serious concerns and misperceptions about flash storage, with many viewing the technology as something intended for smartphones and other mobile devices and little else. In other words, they saw it as a poor fit for the enterprise. This prevailing viewpoint has slowly been changed both by flash storage manufacturers and by real life use cases. Indeed, it’s the faster performance that has attracted so many businesses into using flash storage for their operations.
That increased performance makes flash storage almost a necessary element within many enterprises. Several trends within technology, such as Big Data analytics, converged infrastructure, the cloud, and the rise of social media, have required better storage technology to be able to process vast amounts of information. To survive in this competitive environment, some businesses have almost had no choice but to adopt flash storage as the missing ingredient to ensure everything is operating smoothly. In addition to these favorable aspects, the price of flash storage has also declined by leaps and bounds over the past few years. Whereas before, hard disk drives were quite inexpensive per gigabyte used compared to flash, now, the difference isn’t nearly as great.
A combination of trends has led to the greater acceptance and use of flash storage in enterprises throughout the world. Workload demands, faster performance, reduced costs, and better understanding of the technology have made flash a dominant force in the storage market. While it is still running in second-place behind disk drives in much of the world, the next level is well within reach. With a bit more time, we can expect more businesses to adopt flash storage and enjoy its many benefits. The migration to flash is real, and before long, hard disk drives may be viewed as the technology of the past.