SSD's Next Home Could Be Enterprise Storage - Page 2

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Chander said there are certain instances where SSDs make ideal replacements for 15k drives. In some applications, only 10 percent of the hard drive is filled, with all of the data at the outer edge of the platter for maximum speed, and the drive is just used for fast reads. This, he said, is where SSDs make an ideal hard disk replacement. After that, though, SSD technology has to prove itself.

Weinger said tests have found the mean time before failure for SSDs to be about almost one million hours, but Chander said lab tests aren't enough, OEMs want real world usage experience.

"The industry wants to go through a field experience with a newer device before it accepts it. They want to put it in the field and test it and check it out and have the technician say it works," Chander said.

Timetable for enterprise adoption

"Definitely SSDs will penetrate the enterprise, but it will be slow and at a limited level, and only with some apps. As they get adopted and reliability gets tested in the field, acceptance will increase," he added.

As for the desktop market, both Weinger and Chander said the desktop market is not a priority right now. Desktop PCs are falling out of favor, with laptops outselling desktops this year, and those who have a desktop want more capacity, something SSD doesn't offer. "Ultimately, desktop users want high capacity," said Weinger.

"The consumer market will probably be the last to get SSDs," added Chander.