Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 08 | Page 15

LATEST INTELLIGENCE KEYS TO BUSINESS SUCCESS WITH ALL-FLASH STORAGE A ll-flash storage is on a strong growth trajectory, but the industry is not swooning naively over the blazing fast I/O speeds. Most IT managers are taking a mature, step-by-step approach to all-flash adoption. Falling per-gigabyte prices are making the technology more commonplace. Solid state drives are no longer just for specialized, high-performing tasks. Before they leap, however, storage professionals want to understand the full business picture as they formulate a winning strategy for putting all- flash storage to use for more workloads. This paper offers insights for business success with all-flash storage based on IT Central Station reviews. Real users weigh in on what it takes to get the most out of the technology. It covers such aspects of flash storage as the need for simplicity and the importance of flexibility. The paper also looks at how to build a business case for all-flash and think through the implications of issues such as integration with existing infrastructure. The Growth of All-Flash Storage The all-flash storage business is booming even as the overall storage market cools off. In 2015, according to IDC, sales of all-flash arrays were up 71% for the year while total storage revenue decreased by 2.2%. Adoption is brisk but measured. Taneja Group, an industry research firm, surveyed IT managers and found that 18% believed that all of their tier 1 workloads would be running on all-flash arrays by the end of 2017. Of those surveyed, 35% also thought they would run their tier 1 workloads on all-flash but needed more time to work through their hardware refresh cycles. So, 53% expected an all-flash future, and the survey found that only 10% felt that all-flash was not going to be the dominant storage platform in the future. Download White Papers free from http://www.intelligentcio.com/africa/white-papers/ www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 15