Shipments of solid state drives to rocket

SSDs better meet the needs of enterprises than magnetic hard drives, says research firm

Solid state drives are set to become popular in enterprises

The market for enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) will grow from 150,000 units in the current year to more than 4.1 million by 2015, according to research firm Objective Analysis.

In its report, called Enterprise SSDs: Technologies & Markets, the company argued that SSDs can better meet the needs of enterprise and storage area network (SAN) users than magnetic hard drive units.

"That's a growth rate of 90 per cent per annum, which will be complemented by an annual revenue growth rate of 55 per cent,” said Andy Cordial, managing director at storage systems integration specialist Origin Storage. “This reflects the rapid take-up and the falling prices that we are continuing to see in the SSD marketplace," he said.

"If you delve into the report, you will find that the magnetic hard drive market is predicted to shrink considerably over the next five years, with the slack being more than taken up by SSD technology," he added.