StorONE can tier disk data to existing all-flash arrays

StorONE has extended its real-time tiering to allow existing all-flash arrays to serve as a high-performance cache for disk storage, increasing effective flash capacity ninefold amid SSD shortages and price surges. The company's block-level caching addresses growing demand for flash in AI workloads while reducing reliance on expensive new flash hardware.

StorONE can tier disk data to existing all-flash arrays StorONE has extended its real-time tiering from disk to SSDs, enabling an allocated portion of existing all-flash arrays to be its high-performance tier with block-level caching of disk data on the flash to increase its effective capacity ninefold. As prolonged and high AI demand for high-bandwidth memory HBM for GPUs and DRAM for CPUs has met limited supply, capacity prices have rocketed as lead times have lengthened. There has been a surge in demand for SSDs to hold the data needed by expensive AI servers as flash delivers it much faster than disk. Flash supply is also constrained by limited fab capacity and both prices and lead times have also increased. SSDs now cost approximately 15× more than HDD and new flash hardware often requires 9–15-month acquisition lead times. This has, in turn, led to more interest in using flash as a cache for bulk data storage on cheaper disk drives, providing a combination of flash data IO speed and disk array capacity so as to sidestep the flash capacity shortage. StorONE has previously enabled the use of spare SSD capacity https://www.blocksandfiles.com/flash/2026/02/19/storone-arrays-adopt-external-flash-jbods-in-flash-program/4091452 and now it can use allocated capacity in active flash arrays as a high-performance tier backed up by a bulk disk store. Gal Naor, StorONE founder and CEO, said: “At Storwize, we challenged the belief that primary storage couldn’t deliver meaningful capacity reduction, and the industry eventually embraced that change. Today, we’re at a similar inflection point, challenging another long-held assumption, that the answer to growing storage demand is buying more flash. It isn’t. As flash becomes more constrained and more expensive, organizations need to get dramatically more value from the flash they already own.” Naor was a joint founder of Storwize https://www.theregister.com/2016/08/24/ibm new flash storwize gear/ , the real-time compression storage software company started up in 2004 and acquired by IBM https://www.theregister.com/2010/07/29/ibm buys storwize/ in 2010 for $140 million. Several suppliers have approached the SSD capacity shortage with different alternatives. Dell https://www.blocksandfiles.com/ai-ml/2026/01/15/dell-warns-against-reusing-ssds-as-flash-shortages-bite/4090351? gl=1 13sva7z ga MzkxNDQyMTIwLjE3NzcwMzc0NTc. ga NSDTXHMMN0 czE3ODM1MDQwMDckbzE4MSRnMSR0MTc4MzUwNDQ4OCRqNjAkbDAkaDA. supports tiering across all-flash, hybrid flash-disk, and disk arrays.DDN advocates tiering to the cloud https://www.ddn.com/blog/navigating-the-nand/flash-price-surge/ .Hammerspace has published a 12-page Strategic Infrastructure Survival Guide https://hammerspace.com/lp/ssd-survival-guide/ Data lifecycle manager Komprise https://www.blocksandfiles.com/data-management/2026/03/26/komprises-flash-stretch-tiers-nas-to-cloud-for-flash-capacity-savings/5211648 has a Flash Stretch Assessment service to find and shunt rarely-accessed files off to public cloud disk to free up on-prem flash.VAST Data suggests re-using old SSDs with its Amplify https://www.blocksandfiles.com/ai-ml/2026/01/27/vast-data-launches-amplify-to-reclaim-stranded-nvme-capacity/4090337 program.VDURA has its Flash Relief https://www.blocksandfiles.com/ai-ml/2026/01/29/vdura-offers-to-undercut-all-flash-rivals-amid-ssd-price-surge/4090603 program.WEKA has issued a NAND Flash Shortage Survival Guide https://www.weka.io/resources/eguide/the-nand-flash-shortage-survival-guide/ StorONE says traditional storage tiering systems were designed primarily for archive environments and cold-data movement. Its Real-Time Tiering RTT was specifically designed for active storage environments and continuous real-time optimization. Applications continue to see a single volume while StorONE automatically balances active and inactive blocks across storage tiers in real time at block-level granularity. The result is up to 9× more effective capacity from existing all-flash storage capacity. StorONE v4.0 software also provides enterprise-grade storage services including multi-protocol support, replication, encryption, over 100,000 immutable snapshots per volume, and advanced data protection.