Adoption of Flash Storage in UK, US and France Pushed by Falling Costs and Performance

A survey has revealed that the majority of IT decision makers in the UK, US and France agree that the adoption of flash storage will increase due to both performance and falling costs.

The survey, commissioned by Kaminario Technologies, Ltd and carried out by Vanson Bourne, also found that less than 50% of storage media is already flash, indicating huge scope for growth in the future.

The research, which surveyed 400 IT decision makers across a range of vertical markets including manufacturing, financial services and retailers, showed that, when it came to flash adoption, the UK placed performance at almost identical importance to falling costs (71% vs. 72%). This indicates that British businesses have already identified that the price of flash storage is increasingly less of a differentiator, so solutions need to deliver on both to remain competitive. This may also explain why the current adoption of flash was the lowest in the UK, with less than a third of data centres utilising flash technology.

The survey revealed that across all of the regions, more than two thirds agreed that cost efficiency will be key to future flash adoption as it is starting to be recognised as an affordable storage option. This sentiment was highest in Europe, with 73% of French and 72% of UK IT decision makers agreeing this was a driving factor.

However, unlike the UK, results from France and the US showed that on average the high performance capabilities of all-flash arrays still played a slightly more significant role when it came to choosing a storage solution. More than 80% of the total respondents agreed that the high density performance of solid state storage would help to increase the adoption of all-flash data centres.

Mick Bradley, VP and GM, EMEA, Kaminario, commented: “Flash adoption is steadily on the rise, and it is increasingly more important that our customers understand the need to have a combination of high performance and low cost when choosing their storage solution. It is a positive indication to us that businesses in the UK especially are starting to look at both of these factors equally as we move towards predominately-flash data centres. Kaminario is well positioned to help these customers achieve their performance goals while keeping costs low.”