SSD tipped for take-off

Storage VARs urged to cash in on growing popularity of SSDs

Storage channel onlookers have tipped the solid state disk (SSD) market as a lucrative growth hotspot for 2011.

Storage vendor Kingston Technology claims demand for the technology has grown "quarter on quarter" for the firm over the past year.

Bernd Dombrowsky, EMEA sales director at Kingston, urged VARs to climb aboard the SSD bandwagon.

"End users have been put off in the past by high prices," Dombrowsky admitted. "But, you pay virtually nothing in maintenance costs and the power consumption is so much lower than using a traditional hard drive."

The impact SSD has on shortening the booting-up time of computers is a popular lure for businesses concerned about productivity, he added.

Paul Hickingbotham, solutions manager at storage distributor Hammer, said his firm has seen a growing demand for SSD from both SMBs and enterprise customers.

He explained: "With an increasing amount of applications requiring sustained performance, simplicity and reliability, we have seen a high demand for SSD.

"There is a multitude of capacity and performance options available, and its future appears secure in the SME and enterprise markets."

As a result, Hickingbotham said VARs could clean up by guiding end users through the vast array of SSD products now on the market.

He added: "SSD holds compelling potential to resolve these growing demands for better performance and reliability, providing the right advice is sought in ensuring the correct SSD solution is specified."