1-2-1 I SSDs
could be safely returned to the vendor for repair. On the other hand, once a drive comes out it might be best to destroy it anyway, and replace it with a fresh drive. There also might be a problem in that some SSD vendors try to optimize by not writing zero sectors to flash, but this is not possible once encryption is used.
Q Is the line between consumer SSD products and those suitable for the enterprise market sufficiently clear for end users?
MK: Generally there is enough accessible information from manufacturers and VARs for corporate end users to understand and make informed decisions regarding consumer level SSD products and enterprise level products.
GW: No. It’s clear to me that shady vendors are happy to sell consumer grade flash into enterprise environments, where they will be lucky to last six months. However, the market will become more educated as these devices become more mainstream, so in the meantime I would just encourage people to stick with vendors they can trust.
JC: This line has been blurred over the past couple of years, and frankly WhipTail belives we had something to do with that! Two years ago, there was very little discussion wrapped-around MLC (consumer) based FLASH. This has always been our sweet-spot: optimizing MLC flash to take advantage of it’s cost- point to offer it to the broader enterprise. SLC is more or less out of the game due to costs - to the point that several FLASH manufacturers ignored SLC orders post-tsunami to focus on pushing out their MLC life-blood. MLC Flash is the only way for the majority of enterprises to embrace SSD’s cost-effectively and in a practical use-case.
Q In conclusion, are SSDs just super-fast storage, or will they develop replication, dedupe and other functions over time?
MK: Functionality such as SSD based dedupe and replication are already in development!
GW: SSD’s will enable applications that weren’t practical before, due to their near-zero access time behaviour. Furthermore, the way we write file systems, protocols, and applications will ultimately change to take best advantage of these new technologies. I’ll bet that at least half of the lines of code in a typical file system are there because the designer is trying to reduce the impact of disk seek time. That all goes away with SSD.
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JC: Without question, you are going to see some fantastic additions to the “value-prop” of SSD. WhipTail will be announcing some not-before-seen updates to it’s platform of SSD technology at and after VMWORLD 2011 that address this topic specifically. Keep your ear to the railroad track.
Q Which leads to the inevitable question - will SSDs ever replace HDDS?!
MK: No. Like tape media, HDDs has a place. Even if SSD increased 100x in the next decade, HDDs would still be dominant. SSDs are about performance; data volumes are massive and growing rapidly, but only aspects of it requires performance. Just like tape has is not dead, it has just moved from backup to archive, HDDs will also just move.
GW: They are already on their way. There’s already no more portable consumer devices with HDDs in them. They are widely replacing 15K drives in transactional systems. They still have a few years to go before they have any hope of catching up on a cost/GB basis with 7200 RPM SATA and NL-SAS drives, but that day, too, will come.
JC: For high IO applications (let’s say 10-15% of an enterprises environment), absolutely. It’s happening as we speak. We use the phrase “Disk is Dead” with our tongues somewhat in our
cheeks.In reality of course, it’s not dead overall, it’s just down-shifting to become the Tier Two platform and as such will continue to be the major repository for 75-80% of application data. At least for the next few years. After that, who knows? It’s just a matter of time and physics.
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