SSD's: Game-Changing Technology for Better, Bigger, Faster Apps and App Dev Moderator: Tom Coughlin Coughlin Associates www.tomcoughlin.com Š 2009 Coughlin Associates
Are Disk Drives Dead?
RIP
RIP
RIP
Floppy
8-Track Tape
Hard Disk Drive
Š 2009 Coughlin Associates
Flash is Everywhere!
Š 2009 Coughlin Associates
Data Lifecycle and Costs of Storage
Time is Money On-Line
Capacity is Money
NearLine
© 2009 Coughlin Associates
Current Bottlenecks and Opportunities • Flash memory is lower cost and slower than DRAM but faster than HDDs – Flash memory changes current memory architectures—replace or augment DRAM
• Flash memory reads intrinsically faster than HDDs and uses less power – Flash memory changes storage architectures by offering new ways to buffer and cache data
• Flash memory is getting cheaper, offering useful storage in convenient packages – Flash memory appears to be replacing optical media for content distribution and mobile computers – Flash memory enabling more mobile applications © 2009 Coughlin Associates
Flash Memory Changing Memory Architectures • Flash may be added to mother boards or added to non-storage buses to augment the storage capacity in system memory
Intel’s Braidwood
Fusion-io IO-Drive © 2009 Coughlin Associates
Flash Memory for Caching and Buffering
Sun Storage 7110
Edge Server for Content Distribution
Pliant SSDs
• Flash memory is finding uses for lower power, higher reliability and faster performance storage devices to augment the overall performance of storage systems
Š 2009 Coughlin Associates
Flash Memory for Content Distribution • Optical discs are disappearing from laptop computers— content distribution on-line or with flash devices such as USB drives or cards • Will flash memory displace optical media? © 2009 Coughlin Associates
Application Opportunities with Flash • Do what the rich guys do cheaper using flash memory • Do stuff with flash that no one ever imagined before – Kill Latency – Kill Power
• Make really bad software work good enough with faster hardware © 2009 Coughlin Associates
Tonight’s Panel Moderator:Tom Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates Panelist: • David Flynn, CTO, Fusion-io • Mike Chenery, President, Pliant Technologies • Mike Speiser, Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures • Sam Pullara, Chief Technologist, Yahoo • Bill Watkins, Storage Industry Veteran © 2009 Coughlin Associates