Abstract
Courtesy of its falling price, solid-state flash memory is making its debut as
a mass storage technology in the data centre, fitting in between disk and DRAM
solid-state memory in terms of both performance and price. Vendors have hyped
the corporate use of flash memory, and some have even talked of a flash
revolution. In reality the take-up of so-called tier-zero flash storage will
be slow, because flash will remain hugely more expensive than disk per unit of
capacity. Even though the price of flash is set to continue tumbling, this
price gap will only narrow slightly over the coming years, because disk will
also continue to fall in price rapidly.
This report is an analysis of the customer segments targeted for mobile
broadband services in Western Europe, and the strategies available to mobile
and integrated operators to maximise their mobile broadband opportunity.
Table of Contents
Executive summary
- In a nutshell
- Key messages
- Recommendations
A new storage medium for the data centre
The appeal of NAND flash
Tumbling flash prices
- Gadget explosion
- Flash is now cheaper than DRAM
- Pricier than disk for capacity, cheaper for throughput
Flash performance
Speed reader, slow writer
Limited write life?
Confidence in predicted write lifes is low
The power and the greenery
The energy advantage
Flash' s friendly failure rates
A more rugged option
Putting flash to work
- Slow start for flash drives in laptops
- Flash fuels hybrid disk drives
- Flash' s brightest future - in SAN storage
- Flash in servers
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