SSD Adoption in the Real World

Are SSDs just luxury items for your data center as many claim? Maybe not. Of the 136 VMworld attendees surveyed on Monday, 62 percent said they are using SSDs in their data center now, a third plan to add more in the next six months, and 29 percent expect to add more within a year.

Certainly this isn’t a scientifically controlled sample, but it still gives us a glimpse into what’s happening in enterprise data centers today.

Of course, many enterprises are still kicking SSDs’ tires. When asked what percent of their business-critical applications are supported by SSDs, 12 percent put the figure at 75 - 100 percent; 9 percent said half to three-quarters of their apps were supported by SSDs; and 56 percent said it was less than half of their applications.

Among the most compelling reasons to adopt SSDs: 60 percent said it was “higher IOPS and faster response time for business applications”; one-third (34 percent) cited “consistent higher performance for virtualized applications.” Only 5 percent chose “provide a competitive edge.”

Speed is critical. When asked if a survey participant had heard anyone at their company “complain that the response time for a database or enterprise application (such as e-mail) was too long,” 71 percent said “yes.” What, only 71 percent?

Respondents could give multiple answers when asked what’s going to generate the most demand for SSDs in the next year. Those included: databases (54 percent), server vitualization workloads (44 percent), performance in a smaller footprint (26 percent), and e-mail apps (4 percent).

The survey was conducted by STEC, Inc., a solid-state drive (SSD) solutions provider.

-- James E. Powell
Editorial Director, ESJ

Posted on 08/29/2012