"Facing the Challenges Through Innovation"
 
Suppliers of HDDs, SSDs, and contributing technologies face their most daunting challenges in more than 20 years. Global economic problems are depressing demand and forcing prices down, but companies are forced to maintain investment, reduce cost - and to INNOVATE to meet these challenges. Innovation arising from new technology introduction has, in the past, contributed to the growth of storage by providing lower prices per gigabytes at progressively increasing capacities, improved performances and reliability. DISKCON Asia Pacific 2009 will investigate storage in the present environment, addressing both HDD and SSD technologies and how innovations, as increased areal densities using new structures and narrower line widths using advanced equipment, will sustain industry.

The nationally-recognised Certificate of Competence in Storage Technology, aimed at the disk drive industry, is a step to increase the competitiveness of the workforce. A move to keep abreast of the technology and products. A precedent in educational programs. 

Every day seems to bring a new prediction that hard drives will soon go the way of the floppy disk, due to the emergence of solid state drives. I understand the appeal of a good story as much as anyone. But what is the real story with hard drives versus solid state drives? Quite frankly, when you look beyond the hype, it ¡s clear that hard drives are (and will continue to be) the dominant storage choice.
by Joel Weiss for EDN Magazine

"HDD vs. SSD: Which gaps are closing?"

The battle for storage supremacy continues, perhaps even more ardently than before. In the midst of all the shouting, some truths are emerging - about how HDD and SSD differ, and how both are changing rapidly with the implementation of new technologies. For example, one recent headline reflected an opinion in its title: "IDF: Full speed ahead for SSDs" Yet another article, appearing just one day after the one above, stated emphatically in it's title: SSDs not ready for 'storage-class' apps. Within the same week that these articles were published, others appeared asking: Can solid state disks wear out? and Will SSD spark a new format war?. These are but a sampling of the controversies spinning around the HDD vs. SSD debate. Without considering the need to sell magazines and as nearly as we might approach the question logically, what is the truth? We will have our panel of experts explore this fascinating topic as well as other high priority issues faced by the HDD industry. Think it has been tough the last few quarters? Maybe we haven't seen anything yet.

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