Storage Effect

Because Disk looks more and more like Tape

Chris Evans points out the challenges of disk drive capacity outgrowing performance.  Sound familiar?  Until recently, these complaints were perennially aimed at linear-access tape technology, with random-access disk in the role of savior.

As disk now faces the same “can’t get the data out fast enough” problem, the solution is clear: SSDs.  Flash is the new access king in storage.  Or will be, because early products are struggling with reliability, write performance, and other capabilities that disk drive device and interface technology have fine-tuned over the decades. You can’t expect a breakthrough technology to hit the ground running.

Yesterday I found this Microsoft presentation in the blogosphere on the topic from 2006: flash_is_good

I guess I wasn’t original with my “Disk is the New Tape” thing.  Makes the idea all the more interesting! 

Next question:  Is there room in the flash future for SSD, Disk and  Tape?

The difference between specifications and reality

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?

Whatever the media, storage marches on

Here’s a fun read from Maximum PC: David Murphy’s interview of Seagate’s Bill Watkins.   He tells it like it is - which is a refreshing change from your average CEO.  Bill covers a lot of ground - worth the time if you’ve got it.

Takeaways for solution providers

• 1 TB sounds like a lot of storage, but it’s no larger than 5 MB was in 1979.  Like then, people will surprise themselves with how easily they fill it up.
• Your biggest storage opportunity is helping your customers use all of their data - not just what’s on their PC. 
• Your customers don’t care if it’s flash or disk or optical or green goo from Mars - they want storage that works for them.  Don’t get distracted. 
• DVDs and CDs are dinosaurs.  Electronic distribution is the new species, and demands lots of storage to enable it.

Answer the question “How much storage do you need?”

Seagate has a simple tool on seagate.com (under Useful Links on this page) that helps you figure out how much storage you or your customers need for desktop PCs, notebooks and home servers.  Plug in your content usage, and out pops some recommendations. 

Give it a try and report back on how much storage YOU need.  Also, any feedback on the tool?  What could make it more useful?

Dave Hitz from NetApp on data retention, flash, forks

I read an interesting profile of Dave Hitz, founder and EVP of NetApp in the latest ComputerWorld magazine.  (yes, the actual magazine, made from real paper products!).  Great perspectives on the growth of information and storage.  I recommend you take a look, even electronically.

 Takeaways:

• Deleting data is more difficult for most companies than finding room to save it. A customer CIO quote: “There are two kinds of data: information deleted within a week and data kept forever.”
• Data rarely ever disappears.  Deleting an old email doesn’t protect one legally if the receiver has a copy.
• Flash and SSD will start to have an impact in the enterprise, even though many supposed storage alternatives to disk never made it.  Flash is different because it’s a classic come-from-below disrupting technology.
• Flash will also find a place displacing/expanding RAM cache.  It’s 10X disk price, but 100X random read speeds vs. disk.
• His favorite foods are those you can eat without a fork.

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 Flash tags 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?

Update: Yet another issue with flash as a near-term disk drive replacement: potential patent infringement issues. 

Moving from exciting technology to real-world product is not trivial 

Robin Harris posted yesterday and last week on flash - both are interesting reading.  My takeaway is that the more flash is applied, the more real-world wrinkles bubble to the surface.  That’s exactly as it should be - new technology buzz always begins with what’s possible, then moves to “OK, now how exactly will that work in my solution today?” 

Borrowing from disk drives to make flash work

Also noticed how most of the issues and workarounds are things that have already been addressed with today’s disk drives.  Just goes to show that storage devices are more than the media.  Seagate’s in a great position as they enter the flash solutions world because of their depth in experience in making storage devices out of storage media.

What do you think? 

Comments welcome!  How do you think you will use your first flash storage (beyond thumb drives)?  Have you already?

There are 3 ways to integrate flash in your customers’ solutions today

Option 3: Build your own hybrid solutions

Today hybrid HDD-SSD flash drives are on the market for notebook applications.  Future versions are in the works for other applications. 

While the world waits, system builders can add the value themselves by combining flash and disk drives in their solutions.  In particular, business applications can benefit from flash and disk tiers within a server or storage system.  It’s not that difficult, now that SSDs that look just like disks to your OS are generally available. Mark Ferelli at InfoStor wrote on this a while ago.

Just a little flash goes a long way to juice your system’s performance, without adding exhorbitant costs.  Not to mention adding some serious differentiation for the right customer.

Anybody out there doing this today?  What’s your application?

Using flash storage today, part 2

Using flash storage today, part 1

There are 3 ways to integrate flash in your customers’ solutions today. 

 Option 1: just do it.

• Buy off-the-shelf solid state drives (SSDs) and substitute for disk drives
• Or, incorporate thumb drives in your solution or process to solve a problem (security codes or data, for example)
• Identify high-end applications where SSDs will make a real difference in user experience or performance

Flash storage means a 5X to 10X cost multiplier per gigabyte for you.  This is justifiable and even profitable if you can find applications that justify a commensurate price increase or savings in your development/support costs. 

Not a lot of market for this today, but it will grow fast.  This is a great chance to get up the learning curve early.

Let’s hear how you’re doing this today.  What’s the best current application for flash?

Yet another data point from TrendFocus on flash.  Flash has a great future, but disk drives continue to outscale and outsell them. 

Dream about flash, but rely on disk - at least for a while.

SSD is kinda cool in MacBook Air, but not worth today’s price

Ars Technica’s review of the MacBook Air provides a thorough user-level evaluation of the value of SSD in a notebook. 

The conclusion:

The $1,300 question is whether the SSD is worth the extra cash. The answer seems to be no. I experienced only moderate gains in battery life and not very noticeable speed differences. The one major benefit of the SSD model is that it doesn’t cause the same types of slowdowns as the HDD model during times of high disk activity, and that’s certainly a huge plus. Speedy read times are great, too, but they are balanced out by pokey write times.

Still, even if it’s more usable, it’s hard to justify the huge price difference for the SSD model. If you’ve got an extra $1,300 to blow and, for some reason, haven’t just bought a second computer with it, perhaps the SSD model is for you. For anyone else looking to buy an Air, the HDD model appears to provide the most bang for the buck.

You get what you pay for.  For SSDs, the ‘gets’ aren’t worth $1300 bucks.  The big surprise to me was that in some ways the SSD notebook was actually worse than the disk drive version. 

Don’t worry, the premium will drop and SSD’s will improve.  But it’s going to be years, not months, before most of us choose SSD.