Paul's Tech Talk

While solid-state disk (SSD) technology [Affiliate Link] isn’t anything new – it has been around for a few years as fast local storage for personal and business laptops and mobile devices – it is being used in new ways that is catching the eye of big spenders in the data storage and management industry. In particular, datacenters and server manufacturers are really taking notice. For starters, flash storage is a bit more stable than traditional disks, as it doesn’t rely on mechanical parts to function.

The downside is flash disk technology can cost over 10 times what mechanical disks cost. While there is much anticipation to use the latest and greatest technology, new startups in the space are looking for ways to make flash storage solutions as inexpensive as possible. To put this into concrete figures, traditional mechanical hard disks cost $1 per gigabyte, while flash disk solutions cost upwards of $10/GB.

An SSD Primer: SSDs vs. HDDs

In order to talk about why SSD tech is such a big deal, it’s important to understand exactly what we’re talking about when we’re talking about solid state:

• Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) – Hard disks are made up of mechanical moving parts. This includes a rotating disk coated in magnetic material where all the data is stored. Since these components are fairly primitive compared to cutting edge data storage technology, their price tag is relatively low. The major downside to hard disk storage solutions is that the components that make up hard disks can break down and even wear out. In fact, the majority of hard disks face a lifespan of about five years.
• Solid-State Drives (SSDs) – Solid-state drives on the other hand skip the mechanical parts, and rely on a tiny, silicon-based microchip to store data, as opposed to a mechanical magnetic disk. This makes for a much more reliable storage solution. Again, these drives are dramatically more expensive that HDDs.

How Businesses Are Using SSD Tech: Hybrid Disk Solutions

As with many new technological advances, businesses are adopting a hybrid approach to flash storage integration. This seems to be the healthiest balance between the cost effectiveness and instability of HDDs, and the high performance and high price tag of most SSDs. Companies, both large and small, are using hard disks to manage menial tasks on a small scale, while using solid state systems to the heavy lifting when it comes to multimedia and document file management on large scale. Additionally, some larger institutions fail to see the immediate need of adopting flash technology. In fact, many large universities and other like-minded institutions have resorted to using desktop virtualization in lieu of high-priced flash storage. A sensible choice, given the financial turmoil inherent in the education industry at current.

Conclusion

In the world of data storage, you really get what you pay for. Every business has to establish what their immediate and long-term needs are going to be. For small to medium size businesses, a stable of massive flash storage arrays is neither going to be possible or practical for now. The good news is that there are legions of storage geeks in their evil lairs cooking up the next big thing in flash storage that just may end archaic forms of data storage for good.

Zach Buckley is a freelance writer who is interested in exploring the intersection of culture, science and education.  He lives in the Midwest and enjoys music, literature and good food.