Businesses agree there is a need for Flash-based storage but cost remains a major barrier to widespread adoption in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
This is according to NetApp's Flash Survey of 3 000 IT decision-makers, conducted by Opinion Matters.
The study reveals nine out of 10 senior IT decision-makers believe there is a business need for Flash, but almost one in five respondents say financial decision-makers lack the awareness of Flash to make an informed buying decision. This barrier is most pronounced among larger enterprises, it adds.
The study also revealed that 40% of IT decision-makers believe Flash is too expensive, even when real-world applications show favourable results in terms of cost.
For many businesses looking to digitally transform, the idea of an all-Flash data centre has become a practical reality," says Gary de Menezes, country manager at NetApp SA.
"Despite the introduction of new high-capacity drives and downward pricing trends of Flash technologies, our research shows there is still work to be done to educate business leaders on the true value of Flash.
"We are working to remove the barriers and risk to Flash adoption, so customers can realise the promise of an all-Flash data centre, simply and cost-effectively," he notes.
Meanwhile, IDC says Flash-based storage is still a young segment for many organisations. These companies are researching whether and how Flash fits into their environments, it adds.
For vendors, it is a perfect time to bring their all-Flash or hybrid products to market and be ready to capture the opportunity as adoption of Flash storage and, in particular, all-Flash arrays (AFAs), spreads from the early-adopter stage to mainstream, says IDC.
The IT infrastructure and business transformation that AFAs enable will be strategic in the successful companies of the future, it adds.
IDC expects AFAs to dominate the primary storage market spend by 2019, beginning a key subsequent phase of evolution in enterprise storage markets - that is, how secondary storage platforms will evolve to better meet the real-time needs of third platform computing.
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