Flash storage shunned for cheaper alternatives

Survey suggests price is holding back flash adoption among enterprises

Three quarters of the UK's large enterprises find flash storage too expensive, according to a new survey, which claims that businesses are rejecting the technology in favour of a hybrid approach.

The research, which was commissioned by vendor X-IO and carried out independently by Vanson Bourne, surveyed IT managers at 100 large enterprises across the country.

Of those asked, almost half claimed to opt for a combination of flash and disk storage to combat price hikes associated with all-flash products.

Last week, X-IO rubbished the claims made by all-flash vendor Pure Storage that its flash products can be price-comparable with hard disk, and branded such claims as "overkill", dismissing them as simply "hype".

Fourteen per cent of the survey's respondents said all-flash was their ideal form of storage, with just 12 per cent claiming that all-hard disk was the best option. Nearly half of those asked believed that a combination of the two technologies enabled them to combat the barriers of price and reliability.

On top of price concerns, complexity of flash together with the idea that it is "new and unproven" also ranked highly among the respondents for reasons to avoid it.

Despite the responses suggesting cost is an inhibitor, only one per cent said lower-cost, consumer-grade flash storage would be an appropriate way to avoid paying more.

X-IO's vice president for EMEA Roger Walton said consumer-grade flash can cause "major concerns" about the risks involved for enterprises.

"Although the all-flash hype machine seems to be running at full steam, enterprise storage users are being eminently practical and realistic. While all-flash arrays do have their place in a few niche sectors, for most businesses it is overkill and inappropriate," he added.

Data was collected from firms across the financial, manufacturing, retail, transport and commercial sectors in February this year, and the vendor's brand name remained unknown to the respondents.