What are some of the considerations when accelerating performance in the enterprise?

Walker Blount
Web-Feet Research


SSDs and flash storage appliances improving enterprise performance is dependent on the applications that are run and the architecture they are being deployed in. Usage patterns also factor into the mix where read intensive, write intensive, IOPs and bandwidth may be requirements of the application. Enterprise applications can be reduced to four fundamental areas: E-Business, Financial, Web searches, and Video. In each of these areas, understanding the application’s usage patterns becomes an important factor when deploying SSDs. In E-business and financial applications; On-Line Transactions (OLT), Analysis and Data Mining requires fast response times requiring low latencies. SSDs have this attribute whereas enterprise hard disk drives do not. Video applications such as Video on Demand, Webcasting, and Medical imaging requires high bandwidths to move large amounts of sequential data for viewing, which again are SSD attributes.
SSDs and flash storage appliances in the enterprise are being deployed where enterprise hard drives dominate. They will either replace some or augment enterprise hard disk drives in the tiered storage environment. Determining where they will be deployed will depend on where the performance and cost benefit is best whether it is in application servers and/or network storage in the SAN environment.
With the continued pressure for improved performance, reduced footprint, and reduced power consumption, IT managers must consider SSDs and flash storage appliances as performance and storage solutions. They will be challenged to find the best fit for these devices to provide the best performance and cost benefit for their enterprise applications and customers.