28 June 2017
Media tier use and technologies (right click and open in new tab for enlarged view. Source: Digital Data Storage Outlook 2017, Spectra Logic.
NAND flash is the fasting growing technology in the storage market, according to research by Spectra Logic.
In its Digital Data Storage Outlook 2017 white paper, the company says demand for solid state flash technology will see annual increases through 2020.
Spectra Logic reckons this will be due to increased investment by all major flash vendors, and technical advancements allowing for more capacity and less cost per piece.
Spectra Logic says flash storage poses numerous threats to the magnetic disk drive industry that will affect the 2.5-inch disk’s market share.
This threat includes the displacement of disk drives by flash in laptops and desktops, and the removal of hard drives in home gaming devices and digital video recorders.
The firm estimates that by 2020, the disk industry will service a focused market, comprised of large IT shops and cloud providers.
Spectra Logic believes the long-term scenario for tape is to co-exist with flash technology. It says that the long-established medium has the greatest potential for capacity improvements, and fills a market need as an inexpensive storage medium, at $.01 per gigabyte.
The report predicts that cloud providers will mostly adopt LTO (Linear Tape-Open), the most common tape technology. It says a new tape head technology, TMR (tunnelling magnetoresistance) will significantly boost tape capacities and speeds for years to come.
Moreover, Spectra Logic believes these tape technologies will integrate well with cloud strategies in disaster recovery plans.
The company expects the optical disc storage market to see a downward spike in 2017. This is attributed to the high cost of discs which is about 10 times more expensive than tape.
But the study adds that discs may become an option for customers that have definitive long-term archival requirements.
While storage industry experts have predicted that the digital universe could grow to more than 40ZB of data in 2020, the white paper projects that much of this will never be stored or will be retained for only a brief time. As a result, Spectra Logic says the total amount of data stored will be closer to 20ZB in 2026.
