Flash storage significantly outperforms traditional spinning disk drives in terms of latency and throughput, but is more expensive, requiring careful consideration of performance, cost, capacity, and protection. The most economical approach to using flash is through hybrid arrays that combine low-cost hard drives with high-performance solid-state drives, optimizing cost per input/output. Common applications include online transaction processing, data warehousing, and server-based PCIe flash, which enhances performance for predictable workloads despite certain limitations in scalability and enterprise features.

1. The Flash Story
Where to use Flash?
Flash storage provides an order-of-magnitude-better performance than spinning disk
drives, reducing latency and increasing throughput. A decision whether and how to
use Flash is based on four factors: performance, cost, capacity, and protection. Flash
is more expensive than conventional disk drives, but higher performance makes it an
economical alternative for the right workloads and use cases.
HYBRID ARRAY
IN THE SERVER
ALL – FLASH ARRAY
The most economical way to
deploy Flash is in hybrid or
multitier storage arrays
combining low-cost, highcapacity hard disk drives
(HDDs) and high-performance
solid-state drives (SSDs) to
deliver low storage cost per
I/O. Hybrid arrays balance
p e r f o r m a n ce a n d p r i ce
because a little Flash goes a
long way. Common use cases
include online transaction
processing (OLTP), data
warehousing, and email
applications.
Ser ver-based Peripheral
Component Interconnect
Express (PCIe) Flash provides
an order-of-magnitude-better
application performance over
SSDs. For workloads with
predictable I/O patterns and
small data sets, server flash
offers the highest throughput
a n d l o w e s t la t e n c y f o r
applications.
Flash storage is an attractive
method for boosting I/O
performance in the data
center. However, it has always
come at a price, both in high
costs and loss of capabilities
like scalability,higavailability,
and enterprise features.
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