Solid-state storage
Solid-state storage is becoming common for SAN, NAS and even emerging systems such as hyper-converged infrastructure. Look for guidance and advice on solid-state storage topics such as solid-state drives (SSDs) and devices, SSD prices and performance, solid-state memory, flash memory, and emerging flash technologies such as NVMe, Optane and 3D XPoint.
Top Stories
-
Tip
14 Feb 2024
7 causes of SSD failure and how to deal with them
Although SSDs are a reliable storage technology, they are still prone to occasional failure. Here are some best practices to keep your SSDs humming along. Continue Reading
-
Feature
07 Jul 2023
SAS vs. NVMe: The future of 2 key storage interfaces
In SAS vs. NVMe, both interfaces play significant roles in enterprise storage. See how they stack up in terms of performance, scalability, flexibility and manageability. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
11 Apr 2017
Tegile funding round gives it $33 million for NVMe push
Tegile Systems closed a $33 million funding round that the flash array vendor intends to use to invest heavily in NVMe, the next big thing in solid-state storage. Like other flash vendors, Tegile ... Continue Reading
-
Feature
11 Apr 2017
The present and likely future of the NVMe protocol
The NVMe and PCIe combination of protocol and interconnect was an inevitable development once solid-state drives were created, as was moving NVMe to fabrics. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
22 Mar 2017
Reduxio Systems snares venture funds, moves closer to IPO
Storage startup Reduxio Systems has bulked up its venture capital, a stepping stone to a potential IPO. On Monday, the hybrid flash vendor nabbed $22.5 million in Series C financing from private ... Continue Reading
-
News
20 Mar 2017
HPE 3PAR all-flash target allows persistent containers
HPE 3PAR flash container reference architecture bundles Mesosphere orchestration software with ProLiant blades, 10 GB SAN FlexFabric and StoreServ 8200 arrays. Continue Reading
-
Feature
15 Mar 2017
Five factors to consider before buying all-flash storage arrays
Before purchasing all-flash array storage, you should determine whether your site plans to integrate AFA storage into its existing infrastructure or to start a new storage silo. Continue Reading
-
News
14 Mar 2017
Pure Storage flash array fuels Lifescript's DevOps strategy, CDM
Women's health website Lifescript 'transformed into a DevOps shop after implementing Pure Storage all-flash arrays from and Actifio copy data management.. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
13 Mar 2017
Enterprise HDDs launch from Seagate, Toshiba
Flash may dominate the storage headlines, but there are still signs of life with HDDs. Seagate showed off 12 TB helium-based enterprise HDDs at last week's Open Compute Project Summit in Santa ... Continue Reading
-
News
09 Mar 2017
DSSD D5 flash appliance sales cease, Dell EMC says
The DSSD D5 for PowerEdge servers from Dell EMC was the first product from the merged vendors. DSSD instead will be used to accelerate existing and new all-flash systems. Continue Reading
-
Feature
08 Mar 2017
Building a business case for all-flash array storage
To make a business case for purchasing AFA storage, you must first understand what your applications need in terms of IOPS, latency and throughput. Continue Reading
-
News
08 Mar 2017
HPE acquisition of Nimble gives it another SAN platform
Surprising HPE acquisition snares hybrid flash vendor Nimble Storage for proposed $1.2 billion. HPE picks up Nimble arrays and vaunts InfoSight storage analytics and monitoring. Continue Reading
-
News
06 Mar 2017
Riverbed SteelFusion edge devices embrace NFS
Riverbed adds NAS support to SteelFusion to broaden the reach of the remote office storage appliance, which already supports SAN and object storage. Continue Reading
-
E-Zine
03 Mar 2017
The state of flash storage performance
All-flash arrays have virtually eliminated flash storage performance issues, for now. But applications and user expectations will eventually catch up. Innovations in flash technology -- such as nonvolatile memory express and storage-class memory (flash DIMM) -- promise to keep solid-state storage ahead of the curve, however. We discuss these technologies and more as we explore the current and future states of flash storage performance.
DevOps allows developers to rapidly create, develop, amend and deploy applications using Agile methodologies. DevOps resources, including storage, are consumed differently, though, taking more of a cloud-like approach.
Security and compliance concerns are big obstacles to public cloud storage adoption. Reliability, data movement and poor application performance, frequently from irregular spikes in network latency, are other important caveats. We provide tips on how to overcome these and other issues.
Continue Reading -
Feature
03 Mar 2017
SAN arrays maintain primary data storage dominance, for now
Solid-state flash is the most sought-after technology for primary storage, as storage area networks remain the main focus of increasing capacity for most enterprises. Continue Reading
-
Feature
03 Mar 2017
The state of flash storage systems
Making flash storage performance even faster has little to do with the media itself and more to do with the storage infrastructure that surrounds it. Continue Reading
- 03 Mar 2017
-
Blog Post
02 Mar 2017
Pure Storage revenue results rosy, guidance thorny
Pure Storage revealed two surprises during its fourth quarter earnings call. One the plus side, the all-flash vendor exceeded its forecast and expectations for revenue during the quarter and all of ... Continue Reading
-
News
27 Feb 2017
IBM flash storage key to turnaround, says GM Walsh
Ed Walsh takes over as general manager of IBM storage to reignite sales. He says customers 'challenged by disruption' turn to flash storage to modernize IT. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
24 Feb 2017
HPE storage sales slipped sharply in late 2016
Storage is among the casualties of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's struggles following the break-up of Hewlett-Packard. The vendor reported HPE storage revenue declined 12% year-over-year to $730 ... Continue Reading
-
News
23 Feb 2017
NAND flash shortage has SSD supply, pricing impact
Flash shortage could slow price declines and constrain SSD supplies through the end of 2017 as manufacturers make difficult transition from 2D/Planar to 3D NAND technology. Continue Reading
-
Feature
22 Feb 2017
AFA storage has total cost of ownership advantages over HDDs
All-flash array storage TCO advantages, including reduced power and cooling and increased performance, can help an organization justify its use to store their active workloads. Continue Reading
-
Feature
22 Feb 2017
AFA storage advances may mean the end of the hybrid market
Flash price drops and speed boosts make the all-flash array the smart choice over hybrid storage arrays for most enterprise users, not just those with high-performance computing needs. Continue Reading
-
Feature
09 Feb 2017
Tegile Systems IntelliFlash HD
Tegile Systems IntelliFlash HD intended to appeal to medium and large enterprises looking to consolidate multiple workloads on a single all-flash array. Continue Reading
-
Feature
09 Feb 2017
Nimble Storage All Flash Arrays (AF-Series)
Nimble's first all-flash array family scales from 20 TB to petabyte and 8.2 PB of usable storage and 1.2 million IOPS per four-node cluster. Continue Reading
-
Feature
09 Feb 2017
Hitachi Data Systems Virtual Storage Platform VSP F800
Modular rack-mounted Hitachi Data Systems VSP F800 runs the vendor's SVOS operating system software and is equipped with custom-designed flash storage modules. Continue Reading
-
Feature
09 Feb 2017
Nimble Storage Adaptive Flash Arrays (CS-Series)
Nimble Storage jumped on the all-flash bandwagon in 2016, but didn't forget its disk fans by upgrading its CS-Series mixing flash and hard disk drives. Continue Reading
-
Definition
08 Feb 2017
SSD caching
SSD caching, also known as flash caching, is the temporary storage of data on NAND flash memory chips in a solid-state drive so data requests can be met with improved speed. Continue Reading
-
News
26 Jan 2017
Dense Pure Storage FlashBlade storage zeroes in on web-scale analytics
FlashBlade system-on-a-chip from Pure Storage converges compute, flash storage and software-defined networking. The arrays use custom flash modules instead of solid-state drives. Continue Reading
-
News
23 Jan 2017
Enterprise flash storage to speed up in 2017
CTOs at leading storage vendors predict speed and latency breakthroughs with new NVMe-based enterprise flash and upcoming memory technologies in 2017 and beyond. Continue Reading
-
News
13 Jan 2017
IBM DS8880 arrays adopt PCIe 3 in all-flash versions
The expansion of the IBM DS8880 hardware line introduces all-flash models designed around the vendor's High-Performance Flash Enclosure Gen2 to support PCIe 3.0, but not yet NVMe. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
11 Jan 2017
Kaminario secures $75 million funding round
All-flash array pioneer Kaminario kicked off 2017 with a cash infusion of $75 million to accelerate global expansion and fuel product support for non-volatile memory express (NVMe) technologies. ... Continue Reading
-
Opinion
09 Jan 2017
All-flash array market advances outpace demand, create opportunities
Scott Sinclair says high-density, high-capacity all-flash storage arrays are a disruptive technology ahead of customer demand for now, but businesses will realize they need it. Continue Reading
- 09 Jan 2017
-
Tip
08 Nov 2016
Differences between SSD caching and tiering technologies
Brien Posey looks at popular ways of using SSD as cache, including write-around, write-through and write-back, as well as how the technology compares with SSD tiering. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
25 Oct 2016
HPE launches new XP7 based on Hitachi technology
Hewlett Packard Enterprise launched its high-end enterprise storage array upgade today at the same time as Hitachi Data Systems. The HPE XP7 and HDS Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) use the same ... Continue Reading
-
Tip
10 Oct 2016
Making a storage capacity plan that doesn't bust your budget
Storage capacity is growing at a rapid rate and by using the latest innovations in storage technologies it is possible to meet demands without growing your storage budget apace. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
30 Sep 2016
Dell EMC to 'stay the course' with flash storage portfolio
Dell EMC plans to “stay the course” with its flash storage portfolio despite overlapping products at the midrange and low end, an executive at the newly combined company confirmed. Daniel Cobb, a ... Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
24 Aug 2016
Nimble says customers quick to embrace all-flash
Nimble Storage, which was relatively late selling all-flash arrays, is trying to make up for lost time since launching its Predictive Flash platform in February. The vendor received a jolt from ... Continue Reading
-
Feature
03 Aug 2016
Seven tips to improve data storage efficiency
Storage networks, server-side flash, network cache, software-defined storage and all-flash or hybrid arrays help storage performance and efficiency. Continue Reading
-
Opinion
03 Aug 2016
Simplifying data storage technologies is hard
All-flash arrays and hyper-converged storage are two technologies that make it tough to simplify data storage technology. Continue Reading
-
Feature
27 Jul 2016
Almost time for SSD flash storage to be used with object storage
As the price of flash SSD storage continues to fall, it becomes more attractive for object storage, which otherwise counts on big, slow and cheap HDDs. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
22 Jul 2016
RDMA over Fabrics: a big step for SSD access
Shared storage access for servers has been the most basic requirement for storage networks. Performance demands for multiple systems accessing data continually increase due to improvements in ... Continue Reading
-
Opinion
06 Jul 2016
NAND flash technology is just the beginning
NAND flash adoption has been as fast as the speed it offers, but faster storage techs such as 3D XPoint and phase-change memory are on their way. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
28 Jun 2016
How to measure flash storage's true value
Flash storage, or using the broader term, solid-state storage, suffers from an inadequate measure of value. Flash storage provides a step-function improvement in the ability to store and retrieve ... Continue Reading
-
Answer
12 Apr 2016
How can you increase SSD lifespan and keep performance?
Solid-state drives offer high performance, but their cost remains prohibitive. Here are some ways to prolong your SSD lifecycle while maintaining performance. Continue Reading
-
News
04 Apr 2016
Propane provider gives SAN the gas with Violin flash array
Ferrellgas' switch from a hybrid array to a Violin flash storage array brought a boost in performance as well as surprising reductions in cost and management. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
15 Mar 2016
HPE turns 3PAR array from all-flash to hybrid
For years we’ve seen storage vendors take systems designed for hard disk drives (HDDs) and add solid-state drives (SSDs) to them. Now Hewlett Packard Enterprise is taking hardware that ran all SSDs ... Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
11 Mar 2016
Violin Memory receives no offers, makes few sales in Q4
Violin Memory finished its hunt for a buyer without a deal. It did land a few partnerships, while shedding a quarter of its workforce and closing few sales of its all-flash storage arrays. Violin ... Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
03 Mar 2016
Pure Storage accelerates flash revenue
Pure Storage is looking at more competition and more opportunity than ever, and handling both well. The all-flash vendor bucked industry trends by growing revenue significantly last quarter despite ... Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
08 Dec 2015
Tintri adds entry-level all-flash, teases analytics
Virtual machine-storage specialist Tintri rounded out its all-flash product line today with an entry level version priced at $125,000 for 5.34 TB of raw capacity. The VMstore T5040 is the third ... Continue Reading
-
Answer
20 Nov 2015
Will most 3D NAND flash products continue to feature TLC?
Vendors are using TLC flash in their 3D NAND flash products, which allows for greater capacity at a lower cost, according to Brien Posey. Continue Reading
-
Feature
21 Aug 2015
EMC XtremIO storage array
The XtremIO storage array from EMC is an all-flash system that offers scalability and high performance. Continue Reading
-
Feature
30 Jul 2015
Performance counts when buying a solid-state storage device
More than half of our surveyed companies are using flash now, with plans to use it for more than just mission-critical apps. Continue Reading
-
Answer
29 May 2015
Will memristor technology replace NAND flash?
Brien Posey says that with HP working on a memristor-based computer it plans to launch by 2020, the technology could eventually succeed NAND flash. Continue Reading
-
News
06 May 2015
New Dell storage array, software-defined options added
Dell Storage ships new entry-level SCv2000 arrays, ups performance and density in PS6610 and adds a new Microsoft-based software-defined storage option. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
17 Apr 2015
SanDisk sees PCIe flash take a dive
SanDisk became the PCIe flash market leader with its 2014 acquisition of server-side flash pioneer Fusion-io. Less than a year later, there is a lot less to that market and that is having a ... Continue Reading
-
Tip
16 Mar 2015
Four tips to maximize the lifespan of your flash memory storage
The lifespan of flash memory storage is not the hot-button issue it once was, but you should perform these tasks to prolong the life of your drives. Continue Reading
-
Answer
29 Jan 2015
How does RDMA work and why is it advantageous with flash?
Remote Direct Memory Access is a good way to reduce latency in flash environments and works with InfiniBand and some Ethernet connections. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
20 Jan 2015
EMC gives ViPR flash-related upgrade
EMC last week quietly upgraded its ViPR software-defined storage and ScaleIO hyper-convergence software, broadening support for platforms and emerging technologies. One of the selling points of ... Continue Reading
-
Answer
26 Aug 2014
What should I consider when using SSD cloud?
Using solid-state in the cloud can boost performance, but first be sure you look past cost per gigabyte and are aware of any constraints from providers. Continue Reading
-
Answer
16 Jul 2014
NVDIMM vs. memory channel flash storage
Marc Staimer of Dragon Slayer Consulting compares NVDIMM and memory channel flash, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each. Continue Reading
-
Answer
16 Jul 2014
Memory channel flash storage vs. PCIe flash storage
Marc Staimer compares memory channel flash storage with PCIe connected flash and offers insight on the advantages and disadvantages of each. Continue Reading
-
Guide
23 Jun 2014
Flash storage: Guide to all-flash storage arrays
TechTarget's all-flash storage array guide navigates the hotly contested market with a comparison chart and snapshot profiles of 15 products. Continue Reading
-
Feature
30 May 2014
Violin 6000 arrays feature proprietary flash modules, memory fabric
Violin 6000 Series all-flash storage arrays use proprietary flash modules, memory fabric architecture and RAID to improve performance and latency. Continue Reading
-
Podcast
18 Feb 2014
A tiered storage model is different from caching
In this podcast, Evaluator Group strategist Randy Kerns looks in-depth at today's tiered storage model, including how it differs from flash caching. Continue Reading
-
Answer
17 Feb 2014
What is the top storage challenge with in-memory databases?
Wikibon CTO David Floyer said the greatest challenge with an in-memory database from a storage perspective is recovery in the event of a problem. Continue Reading
-
Answer
30 Jan 2014
Comparing performance and cost of DRAM vs. NAND
George Crump of Storage Switzerland compares the performance and cost of DRAM to NAND flash in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
-
Podcast
30 Jan 2014
How NAND flash degrades and what vendors do to increase SSD endurance
Storage Switzerland senior analyst Eric Slack digs into the technical aspects of SSD cell degradation and how vendors are increasing SSD endurance. Continue Reading
-
Answer
16 Jan 2014
Comparing write-through, write-back and write-around caching
George Crump of Storage Switzerland compares three common types of caching -- write-through, write-back and write-around -- in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
-
Answer
18 Oct 2013
Comparing DIMM-connected flash vs. PCIe flash benefits
Leah Schoeb of Evaluator Group discusses DIMM-connected flash as compared with PCIe flash benefits in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
-
Tip
24 Jul 2013
Problems with using SSDs for write caching and how to avoid them
Marc Staimer looks at using SSDs for write caching and explains why most storage SSD caching is write-through and not write-back. Continue Reading
-
Answer
10 Jul 2013
Why is persistent cache important?
Leah Schoeb, partner with Evaluator Group, discusses the importance of persistent cache in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
-
Feature
05 Jul 2013
Best practices for SSD technologies
No longer a luxury item for well-heeled data centers, SSD technologies are more affordable than ever and come in a variety of form factors with a choice of deployment options. Continue Reading
-
Opinion
03 May 2013
MRAM technology likely choice as post-flash solid-state storage
NAND flash-based storage is becoming a common alternative, but NAND flash could soon be replaced by newer forms of non-volatile memory like MRAM technology. Continue Reading
-
E-Zine
01 Jan 2013
Should you believe vendors’ jaw-dropping solid-state performance specs?
The benefits of solid-state storage are clear -- cool running, space-saving and blistering performance. But just how “blistering” is that performance? Data storage vendors toss previously unheard of numbers around, like millions of IOPS, to show the speed of their hybrid and all-solid-state drive arrays … but are they really that fast? We take a look at how the vendors get their numbers, and what numbers are meaningful for your environment.
Storage tiering’s been around for a while, but has recently received a boost from solid-state. We look at who’s doing what with automated tiering and describe some of the tiering specs that will be most important to you.And for the seventh year, users register their satisfaction (or disappointments) with midrange and enterprise-class network-attached storage (NAS) systems in the latest installment of our Quality Awards for NAS. Continue Reading
-
Answer
19 Oct 2012
Comparing SLC SSD with DRAM SSD when it comes to IOPS
Find out how DRAM SSD and SLC SSD compare when it comes to IOPS and if you need a DRAM solution in this Expert Response from Marc Staimer. Continue Reading
-
Feature
08 May 2012
Define SSD: Top terms you need to know
How do you define SSD? Check out this list of important SSD terms. The list includes terms you should know and some that may seem obscure. Continue Reading
-
Tip
22 Mar 2012
RAID with SSD: A primer
While RAID is still a storage standard, questions remain about RAID’s relevance with SSDs. This tip will explore the basics of using RAID with SSD. Continue Reading
-
Feature
05 Oct 2011
Enterprise storage trends: SSDs, capacity optimization, auto tiering
Several enterprise storage trends are emerging at big and small storage vendors. Find out why certain technologies are trending and what they can do for your storage environment. Continue Reading
-
Tip
23 May 2011
Using SSD technology to support memory overcommitment in vSphere
Using SSD in a vSphere environment helps with memory overcommitment. Find out how memory overcommitment works and why SSD is better at supporting it than mechanical disk. Continue Reading
-
Tip
19 Apr 2011
The impact of SSD technology on the network and CPU
SSD technology can have a noticeable effect on the network and CPU utilization. Learn how increased traffic loads can change the bottlenecks in your environment. Continue Reading
-
Feature
23 Feb 2011
Auto-tiering software set to boost adoption of SSDs
Discover why auto tiering could make expensive SSDs a more viable option, and about improvements to sub-LUN auto tiering and available auto-tiering options. Continue Reading
-
Tip
03 Jan 2011
Is PCIe SSD right for you? Deploying PCI Express SSD devices
Learn about the PCI Express (PCIe) solid-state drive (SSD) market, how and where to deploy PCIe SSD in your environment, and challenges with the technology. Continue Reading
-
Quiz
25 Jun 2008
Solid-state drives quiz
While solid-state disk (SSD) devices offer faster speeds and consume less power than hard disks, the high price of solid-state memory has kept the devices confined to limited use in the data center. Storage professionals are now seeing more situations where the advantages of SSDs outweigh their cost. But how much do you really know about these high-speed storage devices? Continue Reading