B&CWhy does the industry say that future is flash?
DV:The industry says that the future is flash only because it’s the latest technology, as it is newer than hard drive or spinning media technology which has existed for so many decades now. Always the new is considered to be more fashionable. The old is tried and tested, and I believe that’s the way it’s going to remain. There will, however, be a co-existence of both technologies but until the equities of scale and capacity are reached the hard drive is there to stay.
B&C:Hard disk drives are cheaper than SSDs?
DV: This is only because the cost of R&D and manufacturing has already been absorbed, whereas with SSDs it’s still in the infancy stage where equities of scale are still not being met.
B&C: How much faster are SSDs than hard disk drives now?
DV: This is more dependent on a consumer perspective. From a common user perspective, if the OS boots up three seconds faster or later, and if the user notices this change that’s the question. But if someone is ready to pay the extra cost for a faster boot-up, it’s an alternative that’s available for an end-user. SSDs have their own set of benefits & pitfalls.
B&C:When will SSDs become cheaper?
DV: It’s a question that even SSD manufacturers are asking. Technologies have changed from Single Level Cell (SLC) to Multi Level Cell (MLC). Instead of asking the ‘cost’ question, companies should be working on how reliable they can make an SSD. We all know that there is a de-generation of cells that take place on a SSD. For example, today you purchase a 128GB or 256GB capacity SSD, but how much of that remains in two years time is left to be seen.
B&C: Are SSDs more reliable than hard disks?
DV: Due to cell degeneration on SSDs one never knows what will happen. Once data is lost from a SSD it is unrecoverable, while with a hard drive, data is recoverable in case of an accident where the hard drive is not completely damaged. A SSD failure is permanent vs. a hard drive where data can be recovered depending on the amount of damage caused.
B&C: But for the foreseeable future, spinning platters will continue to have a value advantage?
DV: The spinning platter will continue to have an advantage, not only in terms of cost per gigabyte but also in terms of applications. We have many platforms like the 3.5-inch architecture for desktop applications, 2.5-inch for a mobile application, and 1.8-inch for automobiles and specialized applications. It’s a tried and tested technology and there is no other equipment or component which uses that many forms of engineering that is used in a hard drive. Even a space ship uses lesser engineering than what is used in the manufacture of a hard drive.
B&C: About 90% of data storage manufactured today is still HDD, so it will take a while for Flash to outsell HDD and even for Flash management software to reach the level of sophistication found in traditional storage management solutions?
DV: It is true that more than ninety percent of the data stored around the world is stored on a hard drive. SSD, as a technology, comes into play and has a niche on either ends of the spectrum of need. We do need SSDs in some applications like in mobiles or cameras, etc., which are less intensive. On the other extreme, SSDs can be seen in high-end servers, which run mission critical applications where speed is much more important. However, the bigger chunk of data resides on a hard drives - hard drives are here to stay.
B&C: There are emerging memory types under development like phase-change memory (PCM), RRAM (resistive random-access memory), and MRAM (magnetoresistive RAM) may show promise with faster speed and durability. When do you think these will be mass produced and become cheaper?
DV: There are different types of memories and new technologies that are coming up but a similar evolution is also happening from a hard drive perspective as well. We had perpendicular recording and single magnetic recording (SMR), the next could be the heat assisted magnetic recording and these changes and evolutions in technology could be the key reasons why within the same space we could see hard drives with even higher capacities and those that offer greater performance.
B&C: The enterprise market still relies largely on spinning disks. When do you expect flash to gain traction in enterprise segment?
DV: For the enterprise market, where there is a quantum of data, hard drives will remain but if there is an application which needs to be run where permutation and the fastest performance is required, then for those purposes integrated flash or a SSD could be fulfilling the needed on an enterprise level. To gain traction, it all depends on the users, like what the application is.
B&C:Which enterprises/verticals would most benefit?
DV: It all depends on the requirements of certain verticals - wherever there is a high volume of data to be saved, then a hard drive would be most beneficial.