We have a tendency to explain things in dumbed-down versions of what they really are, to make them far easier to understand. It’s a great tactic for comprehending the increasing complexity of today’s data center and all its networked components.  The storage sector is particularly complicated, considering its central role in today’s data management cycle.  Fortunately for us, the storage industry has a lot in common with the horse and buggy era, a useful way to simplify some of the more complex concepts.

We are in a transition period, moving from hard disk drive technology to non-volatile memory technology for storage. It will take a few years, but do not be afraid to use these technologies now.

– Demartek President Dennis Martin.

Storage Infrastructure : Buggy Infrastructure

Circa 1900: Horse-drawn vehicles were the predominant form of personal transportation. Although “horseless carriages,” aka automobiles or motorcars existed, they were expensive toys to the wealthy. As expected, the early automobiles had reliability problems, often breaking down, but nevertheless a new industry was born. Early adopters raved about the possibilities of this new technology.

1915: The last hurrah for the horse-drawn carriage. While some organizations attempted to stave off the impending advancements of technology, the majority of companies were embracing the automobile, on-boarding it into their lines of business. For a small time, companies supplied parts for both the dying technology, horse-drawn carriages and the emerging technology, automobiles.

1930: Sales of horse-drawn carriages had plummeted by more than 90 percent in just 30 years since 1900. The infrastructure required for the emerging technology, automobiles, now existed and paved roads and fuel stations were commonplace. Most of the headstrong horse-drawn carriage makers that buked transition, folded up shop. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and mass production and the assembly line were taking the automobile industry to new heights. Quality and quantity began to rise, while costs began to fall.

Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908, it sold for less than half the price of many other cars available at the time. With mass production and an assembly line, Henry Ford was able to increase the production volume of the Model T, reducing its selling price by 40 percent within six years and by more than 60 percent by the 1920’s.

Checkmate.

And there it is: Higher volumes + lower prices + improved reliability = ideal product. Customers were not only appreciative of the new technology, but it transformed from a want to a need.

The computer storage industry is in a similar transition period to the one I described above.  Hard disk drives (HDDs) have existed for more than 50 years and are the “horse-drawn carriage” of storage, storing the majority of the data. Solid State Drives (SSDs) is emerging as a good candidate “automobile” to replace hard disk drives at some point in the very near future. While it might not be a complete one for one replacement like the automobile > horse-drawn carriage example, it will still be massive.

There are three basic dimensions of SSD technology: performance, endurance and capacity — and all of the early reports are in and support that SSDs perform better than HHDs. SSDs are slowing taking over the enterprise, the same way the automobile slowly overtook the horse-drawn carriage.