Are Enterprise SSDs a “bad” idea? Four tips and counter-tips for your consideration.

I ran across a commentary on the Kaminerio Web site, “Is SSD Really a Bad Idea? BE CAREFUL WHOSE ADVICE YOU TAKE” by Eyal Markovich, which is a reaction to a blog posting by Phil Goodwin on the SearchSolidStateStorage.com Web site titled “When using SSD is a bad idea.” (Sorry, the SearchSolidStateStorage.com site requires free registration.) Markivich’s reaction was not to argue but to provide some really valuable commentary on the SearchSolidStateStorage.com tips for using SSDs.

These tips and the Markovich responses bear posting here at the Denali Memory Report in shortened form:

Tip1: Don’t Use an SSD when applications are not read intensive.

Markovich’s response: Memory cell wear is really a function of average write IOPS, not simply whether an application is write heavy or not.

Tip 2: Don’t Use an SSD when data access is highly random.

Markovich’s response: Whether data access is random or sequential, an SSD will give you much better performance than a hard disk.

Tip 3: Don’t use general-purpose SSDs in highly virtualized environments.

Markovich’s response: An enterprise SSD storage solution, such as a K2 that scales to 100TB, makes a fabulous solution for improving the performance of virtual environments.

Tip 4: Don’t Deploy Consumer Grade SSD for enterprise applications.

Enterprise SSD solution vendors employ a raft of techniques and technologies to greatly extend the life of MLC, giving you long SSD life at a much lower cost than SLC or even eMLC.

…for your consideration.