When people think of enterprise flash storage they talk about technical features like performance but actually that is not as important as the business outcomes that flash delivers. The reason why companies invest in flash is because it delivers demonstrable business benefits - each feature of the technology can be mapped to a business benefit.
When it comes to performance - processing can be done quicker therefore freeing staff to become more productive. Customer facing systems will be faster which leads to improved customer experience which in turn leads to better revenue.
Power efficiency and reduced cooling requirements reduces power bills while also helping reduce the carbon footprint. Depending on the vendor, companies are able to conserve power by 11x and footprint by 19x leveraging off 15TB SSDs. Flash also takes up less backspace in a datacenter where the cost of 4U of backspace for one year is now considered a savings that again, increases profitability.
With much less requirement for maintenance and replacing spare parts, flash can be considered more stable and therefore time spent on repair work decreases significantly. This allows IT staff to focus on the productive aspects of the business rather than spending time on upkeep and maintenance.
Decisions around flash are increasingly made and driven by its impact on business outcomes and less on just the technology. This shift shows the dependability and availability that flash provides has become a significant demand as customers want instant remedies to their problems. NetApp have a range of All Flash Arrays that have different attributes that translate to a different blend of business benefits. This allows individual organisations to choose a flash array that specifcally addresses the needs of their own business. You can find out more about NetApp's all flash offerings here.
