click to visit StorageSearch.com home page
leading the way to the new storage frontier .....
click here to see our directory of SSD market analysts
SSD Market Analysts ..
image shows megabyte waving the winners trophy - there are over 200 SSD oems - which ones matter? - click to read article
top 20 SSD oems ..
SSDs over 163  current & past oems profiled
SSD news ..
image shows Megabyte reading a scroll - the top 50 SSD articles and recommended SSD blogs
SSD articles & blogs ..
SSD market history
SSD history ..
.....

After SSDs... What Next?......................

March 12, 2009 - by Zsolt Kerekes, editor StorageSearch.com

I'm often asked this question...

"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?"

Yikes! - Deep breath. OK - this is where I say - that's a very good question.

I do find that trying to find (or invent) plausible answers to such apparently simple questions is a challenge.

I should know the answer. I spend nearly all my time thinking about the storage market and discussing it with people who have the ability to change their own part of it.

I published 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. ...SSD Reliability articles & news

Later articles with a forward looking theme include:-

SSD efficiency

Enterprise SSD market silos

adaptive R/W & DSP in SSDs

Can you trust SSD market data?

Where are we now with SSD software?

How will hard drives fare in an SSD world?

meet Ken - and the enterprise SSD software event horizon
.
SSD ad - click for more info
.

storage search banner

...
SSD Backup directory
SSD Backup
The new Paranoid S3B (populated by bulk
storage archive SSDs) only dispensed
lukewarm coffee to attendant data archive admins.
"Maybe we should add a heater?" said Megabyte.
.
SSD ad - click for more info
.
You'd think someone should know all the answers by now.
what do enterprise SSD users want?
.
SSD ad - click for more info
.
2014 has been the start of a new phase of creativity in the enterprise SSD market on the subject of pricing and affordability
Exiting the Astrological Age of Enterprise SSD Pricing
.
SSD ad - click for more info
.
this way to the Petabyte SSD
In 2016 there will be just 7 types of SSD in the datacenter.

One of them barely exists yet - the bulk storage SSD.

It will replace the last remaining strongholds of hard drives in the datacenter due to its unique combination of characteristics, low running costs and operational advantages.
click to read the article -  reaching for the petabyte SSD - not as scary as you may think ... The new model of the datacenter - how we get from here to there - and the technical problems which will need to be solved - are just some of the ideas explored in this visionary article.
1.0" SSDs 1.8" SSDs 2.5" SSDs 3.5" SSDs rackmount SSDs PCIe SSDs SATA SSDs
SSDs all flash SSDs hybrid drives flash memory RAM SSDs SAS SSDs Fibre-Channel SSDs

STORAGEsearch is published by ACSL