Bangalore, March 3 2016: The inflexion point has come in the enterprise storage business. Some time in 2016, the cost per terabyte of Flash storage will fall below that of magnetichard disk drives (HDDs) -- which will make all-flash primary storage the rule rather than the exception.
In a Webinar conducted by CyberMedia and hosted by EMC, Abhijit Potnis, Director Tech Solutions, EMC, India and SAARC, said NAND Flash which cost $ 470/TB in early 2015, to $ 237/TB for Hard Disk Drives, was poised to fall dramatically to around $ 150/TB this year, at which point it will be cheaper than Hard disks which are expected to sell for $ 169/TB. By 2020 Flash is seen to plummet to $ 9/TB at which time HDDs may be around $ 74.
Which is why almost all enterprise storage providers have already begun offering all-Flash options. EMC's VMAX Flash solutions are true mission critical systems which realize and unleash the full potential of Flash Potnis added. These linearly scalable Flash Packs range from 13 TB per unit to 53 TB. By Q2 2016, EMC would be able to offer compression and non-disruptive mobility with Flash solutions.
Data today is a masala mix of structured and unstructured requiring a seamless move from batch processing to Real Time processing -- and Flash will deliver handsomely on these demands, Potnis said.
Time to Flash Forward?