SSD "Chips" Away At Spinning Disk

Solid-state disk (SSD) is by no means new technology, but declining costs and reliability improvements of flash storage have reinvigorated the debate on where and how to apply memory to the effort to improve application performance. A recent wave of storage vendor announcements that offer more SSD options to buyers underscores this trend. Driven mostly by cost reductions and resiliency improvements in flash technology, every storage vendor seems to have some position on how best to integrate SSD into the storage landscape. While questions remain about the optimal media and architecture, there are clear use cases that merit consideration of SSD technology today, and the net is just getting wider as offerings mature and costs continue to drop. Use caution though — just because SSD is a popular technology right now doesn't mean that it fits in every environment. This is still expensive technology that needs a clear use case for the investment to be justified.