SNIA Delivers SSD Enterprise TCO Analysis Tool

The Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI) of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) released a new Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator that analyzes enterprise solid state storage ownership costs by application at Storage Networking World (SNW), being held October 12 – 15, 2009, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Simultaneously, the SSSI announced a supporting TCO tutorial, TCO white paper, and TCO hands-on-lab (HOL) to explain how to use this powerful new analysis tool.

The SSD TCO model calculates the total cost of ownership for hard disk and solid state drives. Users simply enter comparison data for a given application (data such as I/O transfer size, percentage random read/write and current HDD RPM) and the model provides the TCO. The calculator is designed to test a given enterprise application and not the entire datacenter. The model enables TCO analysis on power usage, drive enclosures, drive acquisition, support and maintenance costs.

                             
Results of the SNIA SSS TCO Calculator
                                   for a 5-year TCO calculation

The SNIA Solid State Storage Tutorial Track, which takes place at SNW the afternoons of October 13th and 14th, consists of five SNIA Tutorials by members of the SSSI, covering important solid state storage topics such as how to evaluate performance; how to calculate total cost of ownership; what users can expect from solid state storage in the next two years; and an overview of storage class memory. These in-depth tutorials are in addition to three educational presentations on solid state storage taking place during SNW’s concurrent sessions. The SSSI is providing a hands-on-Lab with the TCO calculator on Monday afternoon and throughout the day on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

To download the TCO Calculator

The SSSI has also just released a new white paper, Total Cost of Solid State Storage Ownership: An In-Depth Analysis of Many Important TCO Factors that reviews the many aspects of TCO that should be considered when choosing a storage solution. It shows a TCO calculation for a random write intensive Microsoft Exchange email application, designed for 2,000 heavy Blackberry users. The calculation compares the cost between the implementation of an SSS-based system and an HDD-based system.

To download the white paper

"Since our inception last year, the SSSI has made great strides in educating the industry about solid state storage," said Phil Mills, Chair of the SSSI. "With its strong and diversified cross-industry participation, the SSSI continues to offer new and highly relevant contributions in the exciting and high-growth solid-state storage arena.”

Terry Yoshii, Vice Chair of the SNIA End User Council (EUC) and SSSI TCO Calculator Committee Lead added: “The TCO Calculator provides solid state storage customers with a powerful tool that considers many factors beyond purchase price. This is important because it enables people to make informed decisions.”