The case against SSDs
The issue is simple enough: if we had started with NAND flash - instead of disks - in the late 1950s, would our storage devices and software stack look like they do today? No, of course not.
Over the last year, researchers have been teasing out the problems with making flash look like disks. While these problems are less of an issue for notebook and desktop users, they are a big problem for servers.
Recent academic research has found that the SSDs used in many flash arrays have surprising performance issues. For example, researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Facebook and recently discovered that placing sparse arrays on SSDs cause premature wear and failure.
