Solid State Storage Adoption in the Enterprise – Study Overview

This research study examines the adoption of solid state storage in enterprise environments, seeking to understand uses and value from initial deployments and planned changes based upon experience with the technology. Enterprises with solid state storage were targeted with a survey and followed up by interviews with a percentage of respondents to obtain a deeper understanding of survey data.

Evaluator Group has published many articles on storage technologies in general and solid state in the form of flash specifically. Getting a read-out on the current status for solid state, primarily in the form of flash storage, in enterprises was seen as valuable in enhancing understanding of how successful the technology has become. The information accumulated was analyzed to provide a clearer view of enterprise use and plans for solid state technology than would be available from reporting shipment data. Coupled with Evaluator Group’s efforts in working with IT clients on strategies to solve their information storage and data management needs, this research study serves to reinforce the learnings from those engagements.

Information gathered from the research study covered a number of different areas that provide insight into how solid state storage in the form of flash has been introduced and used in enterprises. To summarize the larger subject areas and understand through analysis, a brief summary is presented:

• Deployments were initially made for accelerating specific workloads such as databases or virtual machine environments. Based on performance capabilities, additional workloads have been consolidated to solid state storage.
• Successes with all flash storage have caused enterprises to move towards all flash primary storage with future acquisitions. Purchase of storage in enterprises is still predominantly from a small set of vendors with a few recently started companies making inroads. Incumbent vendors do have the inside track with customers however.
• The characteristics of solid state storage systems do matter. The ranking of what was important was clarified through follow-on interviews. Interestingly, the inclusion of data reduction functionality as a characteristic of flash storage systems was assumed to be a basic capability and therefore not high on the list of important characteristics.
• Discoveries during deployment and use of solid state storage are of interest in understanding other values gained and opportunities identified. Discoveries covered a number of areas covered in the study include: Capacity reduction was achieved for most workloads as expected Reliability improvements and the increased lifespan of flash. The opportunity to improve data protection was present enabled with solid state.
• Near term plans regarding solid state included adding capacity to an existing all flash system, purchasing new flash systems, and for some, extending their current storage network.
• Future plans regarding solid state technology included deploying Optane (3D Xpoint) technology as captive storage in servers and in storage systems when offered by vendors.

For enterprise IT management and administrators, this report provides a window into the successes and plans of peer groups currently engaged in deploying and making use of solid state storage. Included is background information for decisions made and considerations for future efforts. For vendors, this report offers insight into where enterprise end users are going as well as their issues and buying preferences.

The Research Study Overview Includes:

• A synopsis of the study
• Scope of Study
• Vendors Reviewed and/or Mentioned
• Related Research
• Full Table of Contents
• List of Charts and Graphics

Download the free overview.