Summary
1. Despite the content of this article, flash memory is not ready to replace magnetic HDD's in most enterprise applications accept where the higher performance of flash can be taken advantage of.
2. Flash memory today is 4-5 times more expensive than HDD magnetic memory, and in reality this past year NAND flash memory has almost doubled in price.
Analysis
1. For the next one to years we will see NAND flash continue to succeed in sub notebooks and in approximately 25 to 50% of the notebook market. With regards to enterprise storage, although STEC has had success selling enterprise NAND flash storage devices to EMC and Sun, the pricing still makes it prohibitive for most applications
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2. With 3 bit and 4bit cell MLC flash becoming more common in the next year to 2, the cost per bit will come down and potentially make NAND flash more attractive in some enterprise applications.
3. The NAND flash system providers such as STEC will have to continue to develop advanced controllers to work with 3 and 4 bit per cell flash. This is a non trivial task as NAND deficiencies such as bit dropping, bit flipping, wear out mechanisms, etc, need to be solved.
4. There are some start up firms such as Sandforce which are attempting to resolve these issues.
