The next data center dinosaur: Traditional storage

[Brink]

I realized, after speaking with SanDisk, that traditional storage is all but dead technology. What's going to replace it will surprise you.

Sure, I get it, things change slowly in data centers, but there's a rapid change that's sweeping through data centers all over the world: The switch to solid state storage.

Notice that I didn't write, solid state drives, but I did write storage instead. There's a difference and what's about to happen will surprise just about everyone except storage professionals. (Hint: Your spinning disks and disk-like SSDs are going to be extinct soon, so don't be too sentimental or wax nostalgic over them.)

I think just everyone realizes that the move to SSDs is already underway in the data center. Traditional storage is replacing tape. SSDs are replacing traditional disks. And solid state storage will replace SSDs.

OK, I know a lot of you just decided that I'm full of radio tubes, but I'm not. Just as transistors (a solid state technology) replaced vacuum tubes, solid state storage will not only replace traditional storage (arrays of spinning disks), but it will also replace now traditional SSDs.

Let me explain...

Read more at: The next data center dinosaur: Traditional storage | ZDNet

 

[Layback Bear]

The last time I read about these ram module storage devices the big problem was cost.
I presume that with mass production and use the cost would go down.

I'm thinking for huge users with buildings full of hard drives like Microsoft, Google, Facebook ect. the lower cost off cooling and the added speed would make up for the extra cost.

I do wonder if it would be practical for something like storage for this Forum. Or maybe a small business.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I don't doubt something like this is coming but it will be nowhere nearly as soon as the author thinks. A lot of what he wrote is, by his own admission, speculative.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

I rather think ii will probably be QUICKER rather than slower -- all these governmental requirements from agencies around the world that require that people's phone calls, emails, uploads, downloads and all sorts of other data any old ISP can collect must be retained now for anything up to 24 months --this is going to require many PB (Petabytes 1PB = 1000 * 1TB ) of storage or even up into the EB range (Exabyte 1EB = 1000 * 1PB) . Conventional storage systems are hugely impracticable for that amount of storage in heat, space, power requirements and even the software queries on retrieving data from that size of data base.

Nothing like fat juicy govt contracts to get people working on this problem. !!!

Cloud servers too will want masses and masses of FAST ACESSIBLE data. Don't underesitimate also the complexity of writing fast software for retrieving data very quickly from absolutely enormous databases -- new algorithms etc will need to be designed too.


Cheers
jimbo