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See also:-
NetApp
editorial mentions on STORAGEsearch.com
- editor's comments:- in November 2008 -
published details of its thinking re SSDs.
NetApp's paper -
Flash Memory Technology
in Enterprise Storage (pdf) didn't actually say much beyond the fact
they're qualifying some products and will launch systems offerings which
include flash SSDs sometime in 2009.
...Later:- in
February 2009 - Network
Appliance announced 2 strands in its solid state storage acceleration
strategy:-
Although NetApp's
PAM is a PCIe RAM card and not a
PCIe flash SSD - it's
just a short walk from one to the other - which is why I've mentioned it here.
I have little doubt the company has already been evaluating options in this
market space.
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After
SSDs... What Next?...................... |
Editor:- February 16, 2009 -
I'm often asked - "What do you think is going to be the next big issue
in the storage market?"
Something
that's similar in market impact to
SSDs - but which might only
start to take off after this recession? |
I did a 7 year
storage market forecast 4
years ago so I thought I'd dust the cobwebs off the scrolls and see how
that prognostication is holding up today.
The nature of such long
range predictions is that most people don't know what issues they will be
grappling with the day after tomorrow - or even if they will still have a job.
So they only get picked up by a few lonely visionaries - who like editors -
have nothing better to do than stare in their crystal balls - while someone else
makes sure that the cash register is still
ringing (and
connected).
When I enthusiastically start to expound on "Storage
Reliability" with normal people - I get the same reaction as I did when I
was talking about
SSDs in 1998,
or RISC processors
back in 1988 or microprocessors back in 1977. Their eyes glaze over - and they
say politely - "I can't understand why anyone would be interested in this."
Especially
- reliability!
"Yes, yes" they say (trying to shut me up) "I agree
it's a good thing. Much much better than unreliability. Now can we change the
subject... What more is there to say?"
I wouldn't be surprised if
most of you too - thought the same way.
After all - there are 3 more
years to go till 2012. And the recession and SSDs are going to dominate the
storage news pages
during most of that time. So there's no need to start worrying about reliability
- just yet. Maybe.
There are many things I could say about
Storage Reliability
- and I have collected together a lot of articles and news stories for those
who are interested.
And for the majority of you (who have better things
to be worrying about right now) I'm sure that when the time is right for you -
you'll come back to this subject.
If your own eyes are still unglazedly
focused in this direction...
One way of thinking about reliability
- is that it works like compound interest. A double digit or triple digit
percentage difference sustained over many years soon starts to mount up to a
substantial saving in resources. That's also why I said it's
green.
Although unlike
quality
- it's not free.
Post Recession Thinking - 2012 to 2013?
One
effect of the recession is that users - looking back with the benefit of
hindsight - will realize that a lot of resources (today) got wasted - and a
lot of data was trashed - simply because of doing things the way they have
always been done - without questioning the thinking or assumptions behind any
of it.
A whole load of convenient incremental steps can take you to
a place that's a long way from a rational destination. When the spending tap
closes shut - every drip, drip starts to look more interesting and gets
scrutinized more intensely. Happy days will be
here again - but
wiser ones too. ...Storage
Reliability articles & news | |
