Lite-On, a Taiwanese electronics maker, is boosting production of its enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs), the company announced this week. The company’s SSDs are marketed under the Lite-On and Plextor brands.
Lite-On is investing $30 million to open a second plant at its Hsinchu Science Park location in Taiwan. The 200,000-square-foot facility will increase the firm’s enterprise SSD manufacturing capacity by more than 30 percent and employ 150 new workers.
“Researchers say more data has been generated in the past two years alone than in the entire history of the human race, which is putting enormous pressure on the storage market to keep pace,” said Darlo Perez, managing director of Lite-On Storage Americas, in a July 21 announcement. “Lite-On Storage has experienced unprecedented growth and our business is poised to continue growing our market position as well as accelerate delivery of advanced storage solutions in anticipation to roll out our portfolio of new products in 2017.”
Enterprises are snapping up flash storage, bringing the chip-based storage technology into the mainstream.
Once considered an exotic and expensive performance-boosting solution, flash can now be found in nearly 90 percent of data centers, according to a recent report from analyst firm 451 Research. The most common implementation is in hybrid flash SAN storage arrays (51 percent). Even comparatively expensive all-flash units are solidifying their foothold in the data center with adoption rates hovering around 27 percent.
Citing industry figures from storage market analysis firm Forward Insights, Lite-On noted that SSD shipments jumped 37 percent in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the same period a year ago. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats, and Lite-On has doubled its shipments to become the third largest SSD supplier worldwide.
“Demand for SSDs is surging across the board with Lite-On Storage the fastest growing vendor in both the enterprise and client SSD space,” said Gregory Wong, President, Forward Insights. “With its unique business model and dedicated R&D resources, Lite-On Storage is expected to continue its strong growth momentum and make further inroads into the data center.”
Meanwhile, rival Samsung has been making waves by releasing a high-capacity SSD with a price to match. Earlier this month, the Korean storage provider began shipping the 4TB version of its 850 EVO SSD for desktops and laptops with a hefty price tag of $1,499.
