SSD market will see 'robust' growth - IDC

3D NAND flash popularity expected to drive better SSD availability, pricing

The solid state drive (SSD) market will see "robust" growth during the 2016 through 2021 period, according to data IDC released this week.

In its forecast, based on its Worldwide Solid State Drive Forecast Update, 2017-2021 report, the firm predicts SSD unit shipments will grow at a five-year CAGR of 15.1 percent, with revenue growing at a CAGR of 14.8 percent to hit $33.6 billion in 2021.

IDC attributed the storage technology's expected growth to "greater product availability and improved pricing dynamics" brought on by increasing demand for 3D NAND flash. The analyst said NAND flash supply constraints will start to go away next year, which will bring "further price erosion" to SSD.

The firm added that the enterprise market will continue showing strong demand during the forecast period while customers seek out flash systems for traditional storage uses and server-attached solutions.

According to IDC, with SSD seeing per-gigabit costs decline, SSD attach rates will grow in servers, all-flash arrays, hybrid flash arrays and hyperscale cloud service provider datacenters.

SSD's price drop will also lead to more adoption of SSD in PCs and other client devices, according to IDC. It predicts that SSD shipments for the PC and consumer electronics markets will grow at a CAGR of 15.8 percent in the same time period.

"SSDs continue on a path to become a more broadly used, ubiquitous storage technology across IT markets," Jeff Janukowicz, research VP of SSD and enabling technologies, said in a statement.

"SSDs play an important role in making the digital transformation possible, a dynamic that IDC expects will continue to propel the adoption of SSDs and underpins the secular growth of the SSD market for both the client and enterprise segments."