IBM revs up SSD performance for enterprise - yay?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 25 May 2009 13:02

Opinion and Analysis

IBM says it is able to offer its performance improvements by leveraging its own hardware, software and research expertise, something that comes as no surprise – otherwise what has IBM been doing all this time if not to leverage what it has developed into something faster and better than before?

SSDs clearly offer many benefits, although at this stage, price isn’t one of them. SSDs are still vastly more expensive that hard drives, and the future for SSD technology looks very bright.

SSDs are still super-expensive for desktops and portable devices, too. Sure, 512GB SSDs are now available from Toshiba, but at well over US $1000 a pop, 500GB and 1TB or larger hard drives are still the cheaper option for everyone!

I think it’s fantastic that IBM has been able to achieve excellent performance improvements, but at the rate of current developments, and with the downturn in the economy, it will be very interesting to see how many enterprise customers rush to rip and replace what they have with IBM’s new technology, or perform more leisurely upgrades.

After all, IBM talks of banks and airline booking systems that require high speeds and performance, and could definitely benefit from its SSD advances – but exactly which banks and airlines are brimming with spare cash at the moment?

Technology is always improving, too. I wonder what IBM has in store for 2010, or 2011, if its SSD advances of 2009 are anything to go by?

If you’re part of an enterprise business that can materially benefit from IBM’s advances and can make the business case to upgrade, IBM’s staff are ready and waiting to help.

I just wonder how many enterprise customers might be wanting to wait and see how the economy unfolds over the next few months before adding a whole stack of extra capacity and speed right now?