Solid-state drives (SSDs) can be leveraged in enterprise storage to speed up applications and performance without the cost of adding additional servers. But as more vendors begin to offer solid-state drives as a storage option, storage professionals need to closely examine the technology to determine how it can benefit their data centres.
SearchStorage.co.UK has compiled our most recent information on SSD technology to inform storage pros about vendor SSD product plans, the stages of solid-state drive adoption, how SSDs can address storage bottlenecks and more.
Use
of solid-state drives in storage arrays gains traction
Infrastructure for placing solid state in enterprise storage is falling into place after a flurry
of recent product announcements, but most of the major array vendors have yet to reveal their
hands. The consensus view is that solid-state drives in storage arrays are not the ideal way of
implementing solid state but
will probably be the first step while other methods are developed.
Solid-state
drives, disk poised to change data storage market
Is storage driven by disruptive technology innovations? Largely, no. According to Chris Mellor,
there's little chance of disruption in most storage product categories and, with the exception of
solid-state drives and disk as a replacement for tape, storage is driven mostly by sustaining
innovations. Learn why
solid-state drives could change the face of the data storage market.
UK
users explore solid-state drive technology as prices drop
As more vendors begin to offer solid-state drives as an option in their subsystems, and pricing for
SSDs starts to drop, UK users are taking a closer look at the technology and how it might fit into
their data centres. This Special Report explains the differences between DRAM and NAND flash
memory, outlines the cost of SSD vs. spinning disk, helps you decide where solid-state drives can
be used and updates
you on vendor SSD product plans.
UK
storage pros share solid-state drive implementation tips
Solid-state drives are touted as a silver bullet for data latency problems. But while flash drives
deliver an order of magnitude improvement in data access performance over hard drives, they cost
three times or more per GB stored than hard drives. To
get some implementation tips and a better understanding of what solid-state drives look like in
real-world environments, we spoke with three UK storage pros in various stages of SSD adoption.
Best
practices for solid-state drive storage technology
Until the costs drop even further, performance-boosting solid-state drives won't make economic
sense for every type of application, so it's important to follow best practices to ensure they are
working for your storage shop. This story discusses
10 SSD best practices to follow, including identifying I/O-intensive applications that will
benefit from faster data storage, ensuring that applications can handle faster SSDs, determining
which type of solid-state drive will be the best fit and more.
Solid-state
drives, 2.5-inch drives boost IOPS without wasting capacity
While the capacities of 3.5-inch hard disk drives continue to rise, rates of I/Os per second (IOPS)
stay constant. The end result is that the 3.5-inch hard drive I/O channel is becoming a bottleneck,
and 2.5-inch drives and solid-state drives are becoming attractive ways companies can boost IOPS
without wasting capacity. Learn how to leverage
solid-state drives to get around IOPS trouble.
This was first published in October 2009
