Although Dell now offers Samsung's solid-state drives across 18 different notebook PC models, Samsung still views SSDs overall as just a "complement" to its HDD line-up.
NEW YORK CITY - At a press conference this week hosted by Samsung, Dell Storage Director Hubbert Smith told reporters that while flash memory-based solid-state disk drives (SSDs) offer performance benefits across many notebook PCs, enterprise servers, and other applications, he believes Samsung will also keep relying on lower-cost, high density HDs to meet users' capacity needs.
Smith cited a study from industry analyst firm IDC released last May, that predicted enterprise storage will split into two separate product segments over the next few years: "performance optimized" and "capacity optimized."
Meanwhile, Dell officials informed journalists that, although SSDs remain higher in cost, Dell is now offering them as an option to notebook PC users, especially for those needing "rugged-ized" drives, without any moving parts.
In a presentation, Sarah Williams, Dell's storage marketing manager, said Dell is getting inquiries around SSDs from some school systems, for example.
Dell execs also mentioned other advantages to SSDs, from Dell's perspective, including lower power requirements and a more "flexible" form factor which allows drives to be mounted in different locations.
Williams admitted, though, that while Dell already has its eyes on Samsung's 250 GB drive, the Dell notebook options are migrating only now to Samsung's 100 GB drive.
Speaking to the importance of HDDs in Samsung's overall strategy, Samsung this week announced mass production of two new Spinpoint-branded hard drives: the 500 GB MP2, for accommodating notebook storage of video, music, and data; and the F1 RAID Class (F1R) 3.5" hard drive, with a 1 TB capacity.
In his talk to reporters, however, Smith also acknowledged that, at some point down that road, HDDs might be relegated to the role of "archival storage."
Source: BetaNews
