The market for enterprise SSDs is relatively small in the whole scheme of things, so what has adoption been so slow in comparison to consumer SSD solutions?
- Costs remain high due to the use of SLC NAND technology
- Standards are still evolving so it’s hard to compare products or to provide consistent performance
- Early product failures – Poor reliability and endurance eroded trust
- Many vendors but few with any enterprise expertise
Seagate’s announcement of it’s 2nd generation Pulsar SSD product (Pulsar.2) promises to ignite SSD adoption by both OEMs and end users alike.
Why?
It’s all about MLC enablement. Until Pulsar.2, no enterprise SSD vendors have been able to provide enterprise class endurance at a price point that makes incorporating SSD into the storage or server stack cost effective. Data center managers and OEMs alike have had to use SLC based solutions that deliver the ultimate in performance and the enterprise endurance and reliability required, but at a price premium that would cost many solutions of out range, at least for the mainstream market. MLC enabled enterprise SSDs like Pulsar.2 changes this game. Now OEMs have an SSD solution that delivers the enterprise class endurance, consistent performance, reliability, and lower costs needed to take advantage of the benefits offered by SSD.
Things aren’t going to change overnight, but with MLC enabled for the enterprise, driving change will happen much faster than it would have before. (no pun intended)
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“Flash” image and comic book cover by: DC Comics
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