Wikibon Flash Enterprise Adoption Projections

The adoption of flash storage in the enterprise is propelled by two unassailable trends: consumer volume economics and enterprise data value benefits. While the history of enterprise flash storage is relatively short, its future is long. Flash storage is more expensive per bit. However, the higher performance of flash means than much less physical flash storage is needed for most enterprise applications to achieve the same logical storage (as seen by applications and the end-user). Wikibon projects that enterprise flash logical capacity (the effective capacity as seen by end-users) will reach 50% of total logical enterprise capacity in 2021. In terms of enterprise system storage spend (enterprise hardware and software), Wikibon projects the amount spent on enterprise flash will equal that spend on enterprise hard disk in 2019.

Data sharing is a key technology that will enable lower storage costs and high returns from improved enterprise efficiency. Executives with responsibility for IT strategy should ensure that the benefits of data sharing to IT and the enterprise are understood, and that the IT and business organizational changes are made to accelerate its adoption. Expertise and commitment to data sharing capabilities are key criteria for selecting strategic IT software and hardware suppliers. One of the key technical requirements for flash storage is a real-time cataloging system for logical data to ensure performance, availability and compliance.

2017 Wikibon Predictions

Wikibon’s predictions for 2017 touch upon many themes, but all center on the idea that business needs to get more work out of data. Based on extensive collaboration with our community, we offer 10 predictions.