PCI-E storage devices offer astonishing performance and make the traditional SATA interface seem ancient in comparison. Of course, the vastly improved read/write speeds have a significant price premium which means PCI-E SSDs remain out of reach for most users. Being an early adopter of any advanced technology is expensive and it can be a little frustrating for those who want to enjoy the very best right now. Thankfully, prices reduce over time and technological innovations become more accessible. According to a new report by Research and Markets, the PCI-E market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 33.24% during the period 2016-2020. This is a very impressive amount and demonstrates the increasing demands for high-speed PCI-E drives.
The report discusses the importance of managed service data centres to stimulate market growth. Furthermore, the document goes into the lack of availability of constant low latency and believe its will cause some issues. Vendors including Intel, Micron, Samsung, Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba appear to be investing in this area and should release a wide range of PCI-E products by 2020. It will be interesting to see how expensive PCI-E drives are and the amount of storage space on offer. Whatever the case, it’s clear storage is moving beyond SATA for the foreseeable future.
