Sun announced the availability of new flash storage systems equipped with Intel X25-E SLC (Single Level Cell) SSD drives on Wednesday. The new launch is part of a sustained effort on Sun's part to push flash storage and its Open Storage initiative across the market; the company has bet on SSDs as the future home of enterprise data systems and it isn't looking back. SSD technology has been aggressively marketed by just about everyone as The Next Big Thing, but jumping for Intel's X25-E SLC drives may not be the best approach to gaining or holding market share in a depressed economy.

Sun has published a paper (PDF) detailing why it feels the time is right for SSD adoption in general and its own products in particular; the company makes a damning case against the very enterprise-class hard drives it has spent years selling. Hard drives are slow, inefficient, and consume up to 15-20W of power. Sun's ideal data center is one where DRAM, Flash, and HDDs coexist, with hard drives used primarily for bulk storage rather than in situations where fast data access is required. The server OEM's portrayal of potential cost and power savings is dramatic to say the least—provided that you drink the Kool-Aid.

The new X25-E SDD offerings are compatible with Sun Fire and Sun Storage 7000 servers at $1,199 a pop; Infoworld reports that a total of 14 server models are supported. Solaris ZFS is also

briefly discussed in the company's whitepaper, and is billed as "ready to seamlessly take advantage of SSDs today. Unlike less sophisticated file systems, ZFS can recognize different media

types and will optimize the file system to use SSDs as high-performance disks that improve read and write throughput."

Are we ready for a sea change?

A year ago, it seemed a given that businesses, particularly large enterprises with a need for high-performance storage systems, would leap on the SSD bandwagon for all the valid benefits they offer. Such a shift is probably still inevitable in the longer term, but no one is willing to predict the shape of the IT market in 2009. Instead of precise figures, analysts are issuing vague warnings of downward trends, with a possible recovery at some point in 2010. Sun's Open Storage initiative (and the servers built around it) are based on a hybridized system of DRAM, SSDs, and HDDs. Given the current economic climate, however, it's possible that Sun could have the best price/performance ratio available and still see extremely limited success—if no one's buying, no one's buying.

Lousy economy or no, Sun intends to continue backing SSD technology. The company has already demonstrated concept servers built entirely around DRAM+SSDs as well as a 24GB flash module based on Samsung's "open flash module" standard. We've already forecast how 2009 could be a very rough year for flash storage manufacturers—it's an open question as to whether aggressive marketing efforts like this can create a meaningful boost in sales.