The Future of Storage

The Future Of Storage

Optical storage:

Optical storage includes CD-ROMs, CD-RW, DVDs and Blu Rays. Optical storage is used in 2016 for a variety of things but mainly distributing software and media to the customer.

CD-ROMs and RW are only really used to distribute albums in the music industry.

DVDs are becoming increasing obsolete as HD movies and TV shows can no longer fit on them. This means that nearly all media bought today uses a Blu Ray disc to store the data rather than a DVD

Although Blu Rays have dominated the Physical media industry on the consumer side very few if any enterprises use Blu Ray as they don't have the capacity or convenience of a Hard drive or Flash Memory solution. Also with the rise of media streaming giants Netflix and Amazon there has been an increasing shift away from physical media altogether on the consumer side, opting to download any content they watch, which is both easier and cheaper.


http://www.macrumors.com/2008/01/04/hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray-battle-over-warner-switches-to-blu-ray/


In my opinion optical memory is becoming obsolete seen as the internet is replacing it. People will download their media onto hard drives and flash drives rather than use optical storage.

Magnetic Storage:

Magnetic storage are devices like hard drives and magnetic tape. These are often cheaper than flash memory and have larger capacities but they are slower. This means that they are used when the speed at which data is accessed isn't really an issue. "Cold data" is nearly always stored in magnetic storage devices or when cost is an issue. Magnetic storage will likely be the storage of choice for large amounts of cold data until flash storage comes down in price.

Flash Storage:

Flash storage are devices like SSDs, SD cards and memory sticks. These are much lighter and more durable than magnetic storage devices. This means that they are used to transport data by hand.For example flash storage is used to take files from home to school.Flash devices are much faster than hard drives and have no moving parts so they can be more reliable. Flash storage is much more expensive than magnetic but it is used to store data that needs to be accessed quickly.

http://thevarguy.com/computer-technology-hardware-solutions-and-news/ibm-invest-1-billion-flash-technology

The Future:

http://www.networkcomputing.com/storage/future-data-storage-flash-and-hybrid-cloud/396697859

Many people believe that we will eventually reach "all flash" data centres. These are off site cloud based storage facilities that will storage data for both individuals and companies. Although there is a demand for quick access to data, not all data needs to be accessed quickly. This means that magnetic storage solutions such as hard drives and magnetic tape will continue to be used for "cold data" until it is cheaper to use flash. 

This depiction of the future only uses types of storage that are available today. This is mainly because it is very difficult top bring a new technology to market. The storage business operates on very small margins and thus it is very difficult for a new company to introduce a new kind of storage and recoup it's development cost in a reasonable time frame. I'm not saying that there isn't going to be innovation in the storage industry but it will be very difficult and likely be slowly adopted.