Flash Memory Finds a Place in the Enterprise Market

Implications: * EMC said that it will start offering solid state drives with flash memory for high transaction rate applications * The solid state drives EMC is using come from STEC * The advantage for the flash devices is stated to be much faster data input and output compared to hard disk drives (30 times faster) * The STEC product costs about 30 times more per GB than hard disk drives and uses single level cell flash memory

Analysis: The enterprise storage hierarchy comprises various storage devices that trade off price vs. performance.  The enterprise storage hierarchy has traditionally included dynamic RAM (D-RAM), hard disk drives and optical as well as tape media and drives.  D-RAM provides very fast data input and output but it is very expensive and volatile (that is when the power is turned off the data goes away).  Hard disk drives provide slower data input and output than D-RAM but is non-volatile and far less expensive.  Note that there is a class of hard disk drive with faster rotation rates and interfaces that gives higher input/output performance and another class that provides less performance but greater storage capacity and lower cost.  Optical and tape media provide the most cost effective storage media but they are removable storage media and so there is generally a much longer wait to retrieve data than is the case for hard disk drives.  D-RAM is used for fast data transactions, hard disk drives provide mass cost-effective on-line storage and optical or tape provide backup or off-line access of less frequently used data.  

In the D-RAM part of the storage hierarchy there has existed for many years a type of solid state drive using D-RAM combined with batteries to protect the data from disappearing if the power goes off.  These expensive devices have been used for very transaction intense enterprise operations such as stock trading .  Behind these expensive D-RAM-based solid state drives are hard disk drives that store the resulting data and other data on the overall storage system.  While the D-RAM solid state drives give performance advantages the hard disk drives provide less expensive storage.  Within the hard disk part of the hierarchy high performance drives can provide performance enhancements that are not as great as D-RAM solid state drives but are much less expensive.  The slower SATA drives provide currently up to 1 TB of data at a very cost effective price (about $ 0.30 per GB today).  

The new flash memory based solid state drives from STEC that EMC announced will be available for their Symmetrix storage system are a possible replacement for the D-RAM based solid state drive discussed above.  This will be their initial point of competition in the digital storage hierarchy.  NAND-based flash memory (even single cell memory like that used in this product) will provide a lower cost high performance (though not as high performance as D-RAM) solid state drive.  The result will be pressure on the traditional enterprise D-RAM based solid state drives.  

Although many analysts have seen this as a sign that flash-based solid state drives will threaten hard disk drives in these storage arrays, in fact the impact on hard disk drives in this market is far from clear.  Flash based solid state drives are far more expensive per GB than hard disk drives and are likely to remain so for years to come.  At best a lower priced solid state drive may make the choice of solid state drives for more transaction storage more attractive.  It is possible but not clear if this would impact the sales of high performance enterprise hard disk drives since these might still be used between a solid state drive and bulk hard disk storage on SATA-based storage systems.  Solid state drives will have no negative impact on the need for the lower cost and lower performance SATA enterprise storage market.  

Since high performance enterprise hard drives are very high margin products any impact to that market could have an impact on the profitability of hard disk drive companies that participate in these markets (HGST, Fujitsu and Seagate).  We will have to see if the performance enhancement and price for solid state drives really does put pressure on these high performance hard disk drives.  Personally I suspect that the direct impact may be minimal and could be positive if installation of more high performance solid state drive systems creates greater demand for storage at the lower parts of the storage hierarchy.  This has often been the case with enterprise storage since the capability of handling more data usually results in a greater need to store that data.