Categorizing solid state storage systems – Storage Soup blog by Randy Kerns

There are many types of implementations of solid state or flash storage systems.  At Evaluator Group, we regularly field questions and work on projects regarding solid state storage with our IT clients. In addition to the performance explanations and evaluation guide for solid state, we find it necessary to categorize the different implementations to aid their understanding.

The categorizations do not necessarily match what vendors would say in positioning their products. The important point is categorization has served us well in communicating to our IT clients.  However, we understand that nothing is static in the area of storage.  Like the technology, these explanations will evolve with new developments.

Here are the categories and explanations that have worked well so far:

•            All-solid state (flash) storage systems – These are new systems designs for solid state from the start. These designs optimize performance for the given amount of system hardware.

All Solid State System using SSDs

•           Hybrid arrays in a new design system – Hybrid arrays use both solid state (usually in the form of Flash SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs) with the idea that large capacity HDDs will decrease the overall price of the system.  As a new design, all I/O goes through the SSDs and the HDDs serve as backing storage.

Read the full blog here

Other reference documents on solid state

• Solid State Evaluation Guide (free)
• Measuring Performance of Solid-State Arrays (free)
• Solid State Comparison Matrix