LATEST INTELLIGENCE
Justifying
Investment in AllFlash Arrays
During the course of research efforts in the all-flash
array (AFA) space, IDC is still encountering IT executives,
particularly CIOs and CFOs, who have an outdated
perspective on relevant cost metrics for comparing allflash solutions with legacy hard disk drive (HDD)–based
systems. In IDC’s view, flash is an absolute requirement
for performance reasons in any 3rd Platform computing
environment. While most understand the need for flash
performance, there is still a subset that does not view the
broader use of flash in the enterprise as cost effective. AFA
vendors have struggled to adequately explain what IDC refers
to as the “secondary economic benefits of flash deployment
at scale” to prospective customers that are often still using
the storage metrics of a bygone era to evaluate flash
costeffectiveness.
More than 10,000 AFAs are deployed in production. The AFA
market is one of the fastest-growing subsegments of the overall
enterprise storage space with a compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 21.4% through 2020, and AFAs are already
being used by a number of organizations — both enterprises
and service providers — as general-purpose primary storage
platforms hosting multiple mission-critical applications. In an
effort to more clearly explain the economic benefits of an “all
flash for primary storage” strategy, this IDC study provides a
business-level discussion of the financial advantages AFAs can
bring to the table when used as a general-purpose storage
platform. These benefits span six areas, each of which contribute
to a compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) story for AFAs.
True or false: Debunking
the top flash storage
myths
A Note About Myths Versus Truth
It has been said, “Truth is universal. However, the perception
of truth often varies.” In many cases, a kernel of truth
can transform into myth as it is passed down from one or
more “reliable” sources until the end statement differs so
much from the original as to be nearly unrecognizable. Yet,
because that fuzzy end statement seems like it could be true,
it is sometimes mistaken for fact.
The real truth, in contrast, separates fact from hearsay. Along
the way, it corrects inaccurate assumptions with objective
and verifiable information.
Whether you manage flash storage directly or work closely
with people who do, we think you’ll find the following short
list of myths to be a good way to get to the real truth about
flash storage.
The Truth: Flash is a new and faster medium for storing
data, but it is not a new way to store data. Data stored
on flash still needs to be managed and protected, just as
it has always been. This includes protection against failed
devices, protection against data corruption (intentional and
accidental), and facilities for disaster recovery. In the early
days of flash adoption, customers were willing to sacrifice
basic data management features for the sake of speed, but
this is no longer the case. As flash storage has matured, the
need for enterprise data management features has become
a requirement.
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