Solid State Storage Ready For Prime Time: Page 2 of 2

ESG Research

So, how far are we into this prime time phase for solid state? Is this column itself just hype or is solid state really becoming relevant? ESG recently conducted primary research and discovered that just over a half of the enterprise-class end-users surveyed either already have solid state in some form (34%) or plan to have it by mid-2012 (17%).

As expected, the percent of adoption far exceeds the share of the total storage market--whether measured in revenue or total capacity--that is represented by solid-state storage, which is neither surprising nor likely to change anytime soon. At least for the foreseeable future and for most users, solid-state storage is something that is used in small amounts for big effects. Digging a little deeper into the adoption statistics, the research found:

-- Solid-state drives (SSDs) are the most common solid-state storage implementation type. Looking ahead, standalone solid-state storage appliances--whether serving as primary storage or a cache--appear poised to make the most significant gains over the next year and a half in terms of market adoption among both current users and potential adopters.

-- While performance remains the most mentioned adoption driver, reliability is also now being recognized as a key consideration for solid-state adoption. Indeed, while 36% of respondents identified performance as the primary reason their organization deployed solid-state, nearly two-thirds selected something other than performance. On the flip side, raw cost and some perceived technical immaturity are the top perceived inhibitors for non-adopters.

-- In terms of satisfaction, the vast majority (ranging from 78% to 92%) of users are either 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with their solid state purchase across a range of key criteria.

Adoption outlook

Given that just about every storage vendor--and a whole host of emerging start-ups--is actively promoting the benefits of solid-state, it looks like a foregone conclusion that the adoption of the various technologies under the "solid state storage" umbrella description will continue to ramp up over the next few years. The options can be segmented into three main infrastructural implementations: in the server, in the storage subsystem, or as a standalone appliance/array. There are also two main usage options: persistent storage (a tier) or temporarily stored copies of data (a cache). And, of course, there are software [only] tools to manage and optimize the use of solid state. As users gain more knowledge of solid-state's capabilities, and as the functional and financial value of the vendor offerings increases, the IT community itself expects adoption to increase: nearly two-thirds of respondents in ESG's research indicated that they currently view solid state as a niche technology, but expect it to have widespread applicability in the future, while a further 15% believe it has already achieved that status.

The adoption of solid state will happen because it makes economic sense; it will grow as a prime-time I/O platform, but is unlikely to make much of a dent in the overall traditional spinning disk market in terms of volume/capacity, where it does not yet make such economic sense. There will however be a growing market beachhead for all sorts of solid-state implementations--all the way from "turbo-boosts" on existing systems to stand-alone flash-based arrays (whether 100% flash or hybrid). The bottom line is that, on average, a relatively small amount of solid-state capacity will soon be the norm in almost all user environments ... where it will be serving a relatively large percentage of I/O, and where its performance will be measured at least as much in terms of $$ as in terms of speed.

Mark Peters is a Senior Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, a leading independent authority on enterprise storage, analytics, and a range of other business technology interests.

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