The storage business is at a tipping‑level. For years, onerous disks dominated excessive‑capability workloads, however shifting economics round energy, house, and efficiency are tilting the scales closely towards SSDs.
Few firms illustrate that shift as clearly as Solidigm, and I lately spoke with Roger Corell, the agency’s senior director of AI and management advertising and marketing, and he advised me why he believes QLC‑primarily based SSDs are poised to switch HDDs in AI and information‑intensive environments.
Corell highlighted Solidigm’s progress to date and revealed its roadmap extends beyond 245 TB, targeting next-gen models by 2026.
Solidigm’s message goes beyond sheer scale however, and Corell told us about the company’s innovations in rack-level designs, thermal efficiency, and edge-ready architectures as key to meeting AI’s growing demand for low-latency, high-concurrency storage.
Corell sees HDDs relegated to archival roles. The future, he argues, belongs to NAND – stacked denser, deployed at scale, and designed for performance, efficiency, and sustainability.
- Four SSD vendors have confirmed that they will launch SSDs bigger than 245TB in the near future: SanDisk, Samsung, Kioxia, and Micron. Is Solidigm going to launch such an SSD in 2025?
Solidigm is already leading the industry in SSD capacity with the D5-P5336, which delivers as much as 122.88TB, greater than double the earlier era, and is delivery to clients in the present day.
In truth, we lately handed the milestone of getting shipped greater than 120 exabytes (EB) of QLC SSD capability throughout our 4 generations of QLC expertise, whereas others within the business are simply getting began.
Moreover, whereas we don’t pre-announce unlaunched merchandise, our roadmap is concentrated on pushing the boundaries of QLC density, thermal effectivity, and rack-scale integration to fulfill the calls for of AI and data-centric workloads.
We’re actively exploring next-gen capacities, type components, and system-level improvements that can redefine how storage is deployed at scale. This contains our plans to ship 245+TB drives by the tip of 2026.
We wish to say: we’re not simply scaling capability; we’re redefining what’s potential in enterprise storage.
We additionally work intently with our clients to make sure our options are tailor-made to their distinctive workloads, particularly in AI and hyperscale environments.
- I’m shocked that QLC is quickly changing into the dominant NAND taste when fairly just a few specialists predicted that PLC would substitute it sooner moderately than later. What has modified since these predictions had been made?
QLC has matured right into a confirmed, high-density answer that delivers distinctive worth in real-world deployments. Solidigm’s management in QLC is constructed on delivering SSDs that meet the efficiency, endurance, and effectivity wants of AI, large information, and cloud environments.
PLC stays an fascinating idea, nevertheless it faces main technical hurdles in endurance and reliability that QLC has already overcome.
The business has shifted from theoretical potential to sensible influence, and QLC is delivering. We’re centered on sustaining a management portfolio primarily based on QLC NAND.
- Solidigm and different SSD distributors are adamant that high-capacity SSDs ought to (and can in time) displace onerous disk drives for AI workloads. What’s the argument for this?
AI workloads, and different data-intensive workloads needing quick entry to giant information units, demand excessive throughput, low latency, and vitality effectivity, all areas the place SSDs, particularly Solidigm’s QLC-based drives, have a transparent benefit.
Our D5-P5336, for instance, permits storing 10PB of knowledge utilizing simply 84 SSDs, in comparison with greater than 400 HDDs. That math speaks for itself.
That’s a dramatic discount in energy, cooling, and rack house, which interprets immediately into decrease TCO and better efficiency.
SSDs are not simply sooner; they’re smarter, denser, and extra sustainable. Whereas HDDs nonetheless have a spot within the information stack, SSDs are more practical at assembly the latency, throughput, and concurrency calls for of AI.
- So, does that imply that you simply not see HDDs taking part in a job in AI inference?
For AI inference, which requires fast information entry and constant efficiency, SSDs are shortly changing into the usual. HDDs should serve in archival or chilly storage roles for swimming pools of knowledge which can be much less ceaselessly tapped.
Solidigm’s portfolio is optimized for each stage of the AI information pipeline, from ingest to inference, with merchandise just like the D7-PS1010 delivering as much as 70% higher IOPS per watt than main opponents.
AI doesn’t wait, and inference workloads don’t tolerate lag – and neither ought to the infrastructure supporting them. Moreover, the true progress in AI inference shall be on the edge, the place constraints comparable to energy, house, cooling, and even weight will pose much more challenges for HDDs.
Another level on HDDs typically: fashionable workloads mixed with information heart constraints have quickly uncovered HDD limitations.
HDD suppliers are addressing information storage progress with bigger drives, however this comes on the expense of slowing efficiency. Due to this fact, what some within the business are calling nearline SSDs is a really related dialog to be having.
- Will we ever see large-capacity SSDs for prosumers or finish customers (i.e., M.2 format), or will such merchandise stay unique to enterprise and hyperscalers?
Solidigm has strategically exited the consumer SSD market to give attention to enterprise and hyperscaler wants, however we proceed to assist M.2 type components for enterprise deployments.
Whereas ultra-high-capacity SSDs are at the moment tailor-made for information facilities, the improvements driving them – comparable to QLC density, thermal optimization, and rack-scale effectivity – will ultimately affect broader markets.
We’re constructing for the info heart, however the innovation advantages everybody.
- Final query. SSD capability doubles roughly each 18 months. So, the following step shall be 512TB and presumably 1PB by 2028. Would the apparent transfer be rack-level SSDs? 1U or 4U populated with NAND chips and controllers solely?
Completely. Solidigm is already enabling rack-scale innovation with high-density SSDs and new designs incorporating liquid cooling and superior thermal administration.
As AI workloads develop in complexity and scale, the necessity for built-in, rack-level NAND options turns into extra pressing.
Our strategy isn’t just about filling racks with drives; it’s about rethinking easy methods to ship the efficiency, effectivity, and sustainability demanded at scale.
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