SanDisk crushes cost of flash storage with super-cheap all-flash arrays

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SanDisk has dramatically reduced the cost of flash storage, launching a range of enterprise-targeted all-flash arrays costing less than $1 per gigabyte.

SanDisk's InfiniFlash products have been designed to replace traditional hard drives, and plug the gap between high-capacity storage and high-end flash systems, boosting power consumption and reducing requirements for cooling.

SanDisk's executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Sumit Sadana said: "We feel this is the kind of innovative product that will have a major impact due to what we're doing with breakthrough economics, delivering a price point that's never been seen before."

The InfiniFlash will be available in three variants: the IF100, IF500 and IF700, aimed at different organisations.

The IF100 has been developed for OEMs, integrators and resellers, the IF500's purpose is for scalable applications, while the IF700 integrates SanDisk's Accelerator technology for high-performance applications.

Each enclosure features slots for up to 64 memory cards and can hold a maximum of 8TB, although SanDisk has plans to increase this to 16TB in the coming months. The flexible configuration means the flash cards, fans and dual power supplies can all be switched out if they fail.

Marcos Burnett, SanDisk sales director for Northern Europe, said in a statement: "People are using disk-based arrays for the relatively low cost per gigabyte they deliver, and have designed their storage architecture to cope with the failure rates of rotating media.

"When you get flash at the right price point, you can transform your data centre. You can factor in for fewer failures, and when you use a more reliable product, you don't need to keep as many copies of your data for redundancy. You can cut the amount of physical space and power required for storage."

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.