Flash Memory and the Cloud

There is certainly a lot of articles being published nowadays on flash memory, its impact on data storage and the way we compute. However, there is not much being written (or talked about) on its impact on cloud storage. While it's clear to most how flash memory and other solid state storage impact us as individuals for compute - in fact I am using a laptop with a flash SSD as I type - it's not clear at all on how users of cloud storage would or could utilize flash memory effectively.

I believe that solid state storage - and flash memory in particular, a type of solid state storage - will become very effective for one use case, that being applications which perform writes once (or very infrequently) but read data frequently, in fact incessantly. I'm sure you can think of applications like this in your own compute realm. This is the use case that solid state is particularly effective at, in terms of reducing latency and thus increasing the ability for fast CPUs to stay busy.

So, my message is simple - look for cloud storage offerings in the near future that offer solid state storage (in small amounts) for use by such applications. On the other hand, beware of using solid state storage for large amounts of data (terabytes or more) or applications which perform writes in any significant amount, in particular flash memory with poor erase/write characteristics and/or degraded performance when full, after preconditioning. You're probably better off using fast rotating disk (HDD) for these applications in a cloud scenario.

Or, to be very succinct, know your applications and know your cloud storage provider. Make sure it's a good fit for the money you spend.