Hybrid storage drives will be the future says IHS

The latest IHS iSuppli Storage Space market analytics report has come up with some interesting predictions about the future of the storage industry.

It claims while 7mm SSDs are making progress, 2.5″ mechanical hard drives in their current state are still too slow and bulky. A new thin range of 5mm hybrid drives could change all that.

The main difference between natural hybrid drives is that they have an integrated layer of NAND Flash in their cache whilst current solutions offer an SSD attached to a HDD with some kind of caching software (like Dataplex) to make them work together.

By shifting to a 5mm thickness these new Hybrid drives can offer a size advantage as well as a cost advantage by being significantly less expensive than SSDs on their own at equivalent capacities.

“Shipments of hybrid HDDs are expected to surge by a factor of six in the course of four years, rising from 1.2 million units this year to 25.0 million units by 2016. In comparison, the rival hard disk drive with cache SSD will see shipments rise at a slightly less expansive rate, climbing from 9.8 million units in 2012 to 64.2 million in 2016.”

Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba and Western Digital are all said to be working on 7mm and 5mm Hybrid drives for the coming few years. All have been making deals with NAND Flash providers like SanDisk to secure NAND for their hybrid drives.

Ultrabooks are sure to be the first consumer devices to start using these Hybrid drives so keep your eyes peeled over the coming year.

Source: Press Release