The Future Is Bright For Data Storage Technology | SSDs and HDDs

Hard Disk
Source: cc-by-3.0, sxc.hu

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? People with a philosophical bent have debated this question and others like it (one hand clapping, anyone?) for ages, so they might as well consider this: does business’s growing need for big data drive data storage capacity, or does increasing data storage capacity drive the need for more data?

We’re not going to try and answer that question here (and the only thing we’ll say about eggs is that they’re nice scrambled on toast), but we are going to look at where the future of data storage is headed and what that means for business data (especially big data).

The future is shiny and bright

It’s been quite a big year for data storage with many exciting developments and announcements. For example, Seagate and TDK announced that they are working on a 20TB hard drive that they’re hoping will be ready for public consumption by 2016. Helium drives are starting to make waves, and there are new technologies that help businesses make the most of the space they have, so that they don’t have to fork out for excessive storage capacity.

Now, as we look to 2014, we’re seeing all sorts of IT experts come up with predictions for what the year will bring and if they’re to be believed, it looks like 2014 will be an even bigger year for data than 2013. Let’s look at three of the most anticipated trends.

1)     The battle between SSDs and HDDs will be even out, and the two technologies will even be used to complement one another.

According to InfoStor’s Paul Ruben, solid state drives (SSDs) will continue to gain market share as prices continue to fall. He says that it’s unlikely that SSDs will become as affordable as HDDs in the next 12 months, but he believes that prices will fall enough to put them within reach of many small businesses (and private individuals) who could previously only dream of their high performance and reliability. More than that, however, Rubens sees business enterprises using SSDs and HDDs together in a way that makes data storage super-efficient. He says that instead of just short stroking several HDDs to get the perfect IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second), businesses can add an SSD or two into the mix to get even better performance and free up even more space for less expense.

Philip Hunter also believes that SSDs and HDDs will be used in combination to optimise storage capacity, minimise costs, increase performance and improve energy efficiency. This is because businesses and data centres don’t really have much choice but to start getting creative with the way in which they blend data storage systems. Big data has grown (and will continue to grow) so rapidly that existing storage hierarchies have to be optimised because new technologies haven’t yet been developed. The new technologies that are being developed are taking their cue from the well-improvised hybrids and are looking at ways to more smoothly merge SSDs and HDDs to produce even better performance.

2)     Data centres will use increasingly sophisticated systems based on old and new technology.

Rubens is quite excited about helium-filled drives and their potential to, if not revolutionise, at least revamp data centres, thanks to their low energy demands and high storage capacity. They will come in particularly handy for businesses that have or would like to have their own data centres, as opposed to the major centres run by the likes of Google and Amazon. Rubens is careful to add that the technology is still so new that it has yet to prove itself in production environments, but it definitely shows great potential.

According to Hunter, data centres will combine three grades of storage so that they can increase their storage capacity and provide more comprehensive services at more affordable rates. Hunter says that advantages of flash/SSD, HDD and tape-based storage technology can be used to create a perfect (or near perfect) balance of reliability, efficiency, speed, accessibility, security and capacity.

Hunter also talks about the emerging “Software-Defined Data Centre” (SDDC), but that’s a topic for another day.

3)     The cloud will become even more important from a data storage point of view.

There is a proliferation of cloud storage providers, and while they might not all have Amazon’s reputation for reliability and stability, many offer very good services at very affordable rates. The range of services is also increasing and business enterprises are able to enjoy greater scalability, so that they get the kind of data storage and protection that they really need. According to Rubens, not only will more businesses migrate to the cloud, but they will also start using cloud storage for more than backups and archives; they will start storing all of their primary data in the cloud.

Twenty terabyte hard drives notwithstanding, it looks like the data storage industry is in for some exciting times and that can only bode well for businesses with big (and small) data needs, not to mention hoarders who can’t stop collecting TV series, music and movies. 

Jemima Winslow is a part-time freelancer, so she doesn’t have big data that has to be stored, but she does have an addiction to Joss Whedon and cheesy horror movies, and all of that TV time has to go somewhere. That’s why she’s quite interested in what’s on the horizon as far as data storage goes.