Spectra Logic publishes 2020 storage outlook

Spectra’s Digital Data Storage Outlook 2020 predicts that, while there could be some restrictions in budgets and infrastructure, only a small likelihood exists for a constrained supply of storage to meet the needs of the digital universe through 2030. Storage device providers will continue to innovate with higher speeds and capacities to meet increasing growth demand, with every data storage category, including flash, persistent memory, disk, tape and cloud, exhibiting technology improvements. This momentum will be dependent upon projected technology advancements and any slowdown in one category, such as disk, will provide an opportunity for others, such as flash and tape.

“The year 2020 is one like no other due to Covid-19, which makes accurate market forecasting especially challenging in these extraordinary times,” said Spectra Logic CEO Nathan Thompson. “That said, as businesses become increasingly data-driven, it is even more crucial that IT professionals understand the factors impacting their organisations, so they can anticipate the trends, technologies and challenges they will face in order to protect their data and derive maximum value from it for the long-term.”

Highlights from the report include:

• Economic concerns will push infrequently accessed data from tier one storage, made up of flash, to a second tier, made up of spinning disk, object storage, cloud and tape. This method employs data movers to migrate data for ongoing cost savings.
• 2020 will see a 10% to 40% price increase for flash. After experiencing 18 months of oversupply of flash in the market, resulting in substantial price reductions, 2020 will see reductions in supply versus demand.
• The third generation of 3D XPoint technology will become the latest high-performance standard for database storage.
• Disk manufacturers are closing in on delivery of HAMR and MAMR technologies that will allow them to initially provide disk drives of 20TB while also enabling a technology roadmap that could achieve 50TB or greater over the next 10 years.
• The need for tape in the long-term archive market continues to grow. Tape will achieve storage capacities of 100TB or higher on a single cartridge in the next decade.
• Cloud providers will consume, in terms of both volume and revenue, an increasingly larger portion of the storage required to support the digital universe.