SSDs will be an almost ideal addition to enterprise storage systems. Notebooks? Not so much.
1.Many drives vs. one drive. SSDs replace multiple disk drives in high-end enterprise systems. Notebooks use SSDs as a one-for-one replacement, which wastes most of the game-changing advantages of flash.
2.Servers need speed, notebooks need capacity. Servers can use SSD’s blazing performance without requiring much capacity. SSD performance matters little to a notebook, but hundreds of gigabytes are needed per drive. SSDs biggest weakness is cost per gigabyte.
3. SSD power consumption matters more to the enterprise. Notebooks care about power, but the drive’s share of a notebook’s power draw doesn’t make that much difference in battery life. High-end enterprise systems have a heat problem from multiple drives in a small space that SSD will help to alleviate.
4. Notebooks don’t leverage SSD speed. A notebook’s boot time and performance depend on many factors beyond access time. High-end systems use many drives striped in parallel to maximize performance – a perfect opportunity for a much faster device.
Even in Enterprise, the devil is in the details
So let’s go, right? Not so fast, cowboy! One way SSD is less suited for the data center than notebooks is in durability. Unlike notebooks, high-end systems work storage devices like dogs. SSDs are improving, but today’s products can wear out before their time. Losing data in a notebook doesn’t compare with losing it in a high-end business application. And standards are a bigger deal in the data center.
Ready-for-prime-time versions will be available starting in 2009. In the meantime, it’s smart to start playing with the technology now so you’re ready to implement in volume next year.
Buy a fancy SSD notebook, too, if you’re a Techie or want to act like one. If not, it’s probably a waste of your money.
McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator adds self-encrypting PC drives to its bag of security tricks
There’s a security industry axiom that says “It’s better to place the guard next to the jewels.” With McAfeee’s latest move, it looks like the information security industry is taking that to heart by bringing self-encrypting disk drives (SED) into the mainstream mix of security infrastructure elements.
Unlike software-based encryption, SED drives like Seagate’s Momentus FDE drives encrypt everything written to a drive, at the drive. This takes away potential ‘back doors’ or access points to PC data and encrypts at full speed. It makes encryption hackproof and “free” from a performance and individual PC management standpoint.
What’s been lacking are the hooks in some enterprise management tools like McAfee’s ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) that simplify management of self-encrypting PCs. Wave Systems, SECUDE International and others already support Momentus SED.
McAfee’s announcement makes SED an easy-to-add security tool for a much broader market. Expect rapid growth in SED as more companies place more guards next to their digital crown jewels.
My first blog post a year ago was about my full drive on my work PC. Since then I’ve expanded to 100 gigabytes. Nothing like my home PC, but work space requirements tend to be lower.
I’m in the midst of changing my backup method from a local desktop backup drive to a BlackArmor portable drive. It allows me to backup my work remotely. It’s got Seagate Secure technology, which means it’s hackproof – no worries about losing sensitive information.
I expect my next laptop to have a Seagate Secure encrypted drive inside as well.
Someday it will be considered stupid – and maybe illegal – to use a hard drive that’s not self-encrypting in a business PC.
SSD sounds great, but the reality doesn’t match the dream
Solid State Technology talked to Seagate and Fujitsu SSD leaders and came to the same conclusions posted here before - SSDs for notebooks may sound like a great match, but it’s just not happening.
Why? Price – big difference! Boot time and battery life – little to no difference.
Yes, there are small opportunities for ultra-high end early adopters and ultra-portable mini-PCs. But the total opportunity for SSDs over the next several years will be miniscule compared to disk drives.
Enterprise is a larger and more profitable niche for SSDs – but even there the opportunity is at the tip of the storage iceberg that will remain dominated by disk.
Comprehensive evaluation of the top four 7200 rpm notebook drives
Tom’s Hardware compared performance notebook drives from Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung and WD with the depth and precision that only Tom’s can. The value-add here is their understanding of the complex mix of factors that interact in real-life notebook use: performance, power, durability, security.
Although we found ups and downs for each of the four products, all the drives passed the basic requirements for high-performance notebook hard drives, with great benchmark results. However, you should not just go any purchase any of the four drives, as their characteristics mean that some are more suitable for specific applications.
#4 Samsung’s Spinpoint MP2 is a good performer, delivering great throughput of up to 86 MB/s, and dominating the PCMark05 application benchmark, which is pretty relevant. Yet the drive is not a suitable overall recommendation, as its access time and I/O performance are a bit weak, and it’s as power-hungry as first-generation 7,200 RPM drives by Hitachi and Seagate. In terms of efficiency, Samsung is simply not yet where it could be.
#3 The Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 offers balanced performance and delivers good results across all benchmarks, but it does not win a single one of them except the Windows XP startup benchmark of PCMark05. If you want maximum performance or efficiency you might want to look for another drive, but if you find this model installed in your new notebook there is no reason to worry—it’s a good product.
#2 Western Digital’s new Scorpio Black has arrived with a bang. It has the fastest access time and great I/O performance, beating all the other 2.5″ hard drives. Though its throughput cannot quite match the transfer rates of the Seagate drive, WD manages to get excellent results in all of the benchmarks. And despite good but not exciting power consumption results, we found some surprises: WD implemented a sensible power management solution, which has the drive consume the least power at low-power idle and when playing DVD video off the HDD.#1 Seagate Momentus 7200.3. We were looking at the four hard drives from a mobile user’s perspective, so we paid close attention to performance per watt ratings. Not only does Seagate hit new transfer rate records, but it also beats the competition by providing the best combination of low power consumption and high performance. It might not win all the benchmarks, but overall it is on top. Its lead over WD was very small, though.
Seagate sees the importance of 7200 rpm for notebook and Tom’s sees the results in Momentus. Expect to see more of the good stuff in future versions of this winner.
The 50-year history of the disk drive is all about cramming more and more bytes on less and less real estate. The real estate shrinks when drive formats drop a size.
500GB 2.5″ drives mean we’re close to not needing the capacity advantage of 3.5″ drives. It’s the beginning of the end for the 3.5″ form factor. Servers have mostly made the switch with 2.5 SAS drives like Seagate’s Savvio.
500GB 2.5″ 7200 rpm drives mean notebooks can get desktop performance without sacrificing capacity. Expect rapid adoption of 7200 rpm vs. 5400 rpm in notebooks now that there is capacity parity and less of a premium in power consumption.
Tom’s Hardware compared the power draw of SSDs and 7200 rpm disk drives in notebooks under real-world usage scenarios. The SSD-based notebooks had shorter battery life!
How can this be, given that the idle and active power ratings of both devices are comparable?
Disk drives almost always run at or close to idle power consumption rates. SSDs do not. Read the Tom’s Hardware post for a detailed explanation.
This throws another bucket of the cold water of Reality on notebook SSD hype.
The lesson here is to thoroughly evaluate new technologies like SSD in your environment before jumping off the deep end. SSD is no doubt exciting; it just needs a little time to mature.
Can anyone confirm that their SSD laptop has less battery life than their drived version?
In the world of press announcements, Seagate can be a tortoise at times. And while flashy “first” press releases can garner attention for other disk drive vendors, it’s when the drives are in the hands of customers that really matters.
According to Engadget, Seagate has crossed the finish line first with 320GB 7200 rpm notebook drives from Dell. The Momentus 7200.3 is a rockin’ drive, too – check it out.
Here’s a slow-motion video of the Momentus 7200 zero-G sensor in action.
Who’s using 7200 rpm in their notebook? Is it worth the extra $46?
Here’s a thorough article on disk drive-based encryption, with comparisons to software-based encryption. Key takeaway: if you encrypt within the disk drive, there are no external access points for an intruder to exploit.
What’s the real-world risk of someone going to such lengths? Someone could break down my locked door at my house as well.
The “no-worries” benefit
A major commercial value of hacker-proof encryption on a business PC is the “no-worries” benefit. If a disk-encrypted notebook with customer records on board is lost or stolen, there is no credible risk of the data ever being retrieved. Whether or not the notebook is found, the business is safe from becoming a media poster child for lax security of their customers’ personal information.
Tenfold notebook failure rates for SSDs vs. disk drives
Engadget reports a 10X failure rate for SSDs in notebook PCs compared to hard drives. Can you say “early adopter”? SSDs are an exciting future, but a future still for mainstream markets.
Reliability is relative, especially in terms of the technology being replaced. The same goes for pricing - see my Flashtags posts.
Any flash early adopters out there? What’s your experience with returns or failures, either personally or through solutions you’ve sold to someone?
