Artificial intelligence, high performance computing, and cloud and edge computing are some examples of the exponentially growing applications where data memory and storage is required. IDTechEx's report, "Emerging Memory and Storage Technology 2025-2035: Markets, Trends, Forecasts", shows how the industry is evolving, and where the main opportunities lie for data storage.
Increasing demand for data storage
There is an increasing need for efficient and scalable storage, necessary to keep up with the increasing demands of data storage that is becoming more prevalent each year. With storage demand currently standing at its highest ever and rising indefinitely, data storage, cloud computing, AI, streaming, social media, 5G, and e-commerce, are all named contributors to the strain placed on data centers to keep up. The energy footprint of data centers is increasing rapidly as a result, consuming between 1 and 2% of global electricity - a figure expected to double over the next ten years.
Data centers, cost efficiency, and sustainability
Within data centers, cloud services, enterprise infrastructure, and hyperscalers are all contributing to the rapid expansion occurring to meet growing enterprise and consumer demand. High-capacity, cost effectiveness, and maintaining a smaller physical footprint will play a huge role in achieving scalability. IDTechEx outlines tiered storage solutions as a means to optimizing performance, cost, and resource utilization.
The growing demand for data centers undoubtedly creates the need for efforts to decarbonize the industry, so that data memory and storage can see reductions in emissions and contribute to sustainable operations in the long-term. IDTechEx's report, "Sustainability for Data Centers 2025-2035: Green Technologies, Market Forecasts, and Players" covers some of the main market forecasts for the development of data centers.
QLC SSDs, AI, and edge computing
QLC SSDs can come into play within data centers to offer density, performance, and cost efficiency. Decreased costs may be particularly notable when compared to HDDs and TLC SSDs in terms of the amount of money that could be saved from making the switch, as QLD SSDs can lead to reduced rack space, maintenance, and power consumption.
For AI workloads, storage that can take on complex training and inference tasks on a large scale is necessary. With the need for large storage capacity and increasing data volumes, high speed and low latency is required as a result to ensure there are no backlogs or delay when it comes to processing data. IDTechEx's report, "AI Chips for Data Centers and Cloud 2025-2035: Technologies, Market, Forecasts" covers the use of AI within data centers in greater depth.
For edge computing applications where real-time operations occur such as with the internet of things, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles, high reliability, high speed, and power efficiency is required. For battery powered edge computing devices, smaller nodes will be essential, as scalable embedded technology is another trend driving the current technology climate. These smaller nodes will be responsible for reducing power consumption, operating at lower voltages and reducing dynamic power.
HDDs, SDDs, and next generation storage devices
Hard disk drives (HDDs) have long been a huge part of high-capacity storage, due to their cost efficiency. They store data using spinning magnetic platters and are still widely used for mainstream technologies, such as largescale backups and archival storage, and are known for their reliability. Due to their mechanical nature, however, they consume excess power and can become physically damaged, making them soon to be unsuitable for high performance applications.
The HDD market is predicted by IDTechEx to grow by 1.74 times the current amount by 2035, with shifts towards cold storage and mass capacity drives to be expected. A large majority of the market will continue to be taken up by datacentre and cloud usage, while edge applications are expected to decrease as solid state drives offer better efficiency and form factor for these systems. IDTechEx's report uncovers how QLCs are beginning to challenge HDDs in environments where energy efficiency, rack space, and performance are becoming more prevalent.
Solid state drives, on the other hand, use NAND flash technology to store data electronically. They rely on semiconductor-based circuitry for data storage and fast access without power and are suited to applications where bandwidth and low latency are necessary. However, in idle states, they consume more power than HDDs. SDDs will be more popular amongst edge applications, and also have use in HPC and AI, as well as just in data centers and cloud applications.
For more information, visit "Emerging Memory and Storage Technology 2025-2035: Markets, Trends, Forecasts" and the wider portfolio of Semiconductors, Computing & AI Research Reports and Subscriptions.
