Top Pure Storage executives predict that HDDs will go Dodo’s way before the decade is over. Flash, software and cloud storage company. Shawn Rosemarin is Vice President of Research and Development for Pure’s Customer Engineering Division. blocks and files “After 2028, hard disk drives will no longer be sold,” he predicted. This controversial prediction for flash-centric storage technology company Pure may be just wishful thinking, but we need to take a closer look at the issues that could shorten the lifespan of HDD technology.
The overwhelming pincer movement will attack HDD technology’s current position in the storage industry, Rosemalin hints. He sees electricity costs and availability weighing on the popularity, and even viability, of his HDDs. The other is shaped by the continued reduction in cost per TB of flash storage.
PC gamers and enthusiasts may flock to SSDs for performance, but businesses are more focused on cost metrics such as TCO (total cost of ownership). “Fundamentally, it’s an electricity bill,” Rosemalin told his Blocks & Files, stressing that running costs as part of TCO means his HDDs are no longer popular.
To provide more detail on business and corporate power usage, and the resulting bills, Rosemarin presented some interesting statistics. Apparently, about 3% of the world’s electricity consumption comes from data center operations. “About a third of that is storage,” he asserted the Pure executive. “It’s almost all spinning discs.” Rosemalin went on to claim that replacing HDDs with his SSDs “allows him to cut power consumption by 80 to 90 percent.”
It’s not just power costs that matter. Pure executives said some countries set quotas for electricity usage, so less efficient projects may not get the permits they need to plan and operate.
Another business-critical advantage of moving to flash is the increased density offered by flash technology. Flash storage densities will continue to increase significantly over the next few years, as the roadmaps of NAND manufacturers show.
HDD business slump
Earlier this year, we reported that HDD shipments had nearly halved, but more recently, another independent study suggested that HDD sales were down more than a third year-over-year. . That’s a pretty scary number for those in the HDD manufacturing business, but it’s extraordinary that business is trending to zero by 2028. Blocks & Files says there is no example of a super-large data center company suggesting a transition from HDD to flash, and the move could mark the beginning of the end for his HDD. So for now, projection of the Pure looks like an act of trying to make that dream a reality.
Consumers looking to balance storage costs per TB with high capacity and good performance will probably stick with hybrid setups for some time, mixing SSDs and HDDs in relative strength. But nostalgia for the mechanical noise of HDDs has already begun, and projects like HDD Clicker are ready to interrupt your quiet computing with various clicks, ticks and whoos.
