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All-flash storage can reduce storage latency by replacing hard drives’ mechanical seek and rotational delays with solid-state media. NVMe may reduce overhead further by using a protocol and PCIe data path designed for nonvolatile memory. The gains are most useful for latency-sensitive, random-I/O workloads, but neither flash nor NVMe guarantees a particular application response time. Efficiency gains are equally workload- and system-dependent: compare useful work delivered per watt and rack unit, not the storage medium in isolation.
How all-flash storage reduces latency
A hard disk drive must position its head and wait for the platter to rotate before it can read or write data. Those mechanical steps add access delay before data transfer begins. Solid-state drives have no moving parts, so replacing HDDs with flash removes seek and rotational delay.
NVMe can make the path more suitable for flash. It was designed for nonvolatile memory and commonly connects over PCIe, rather than relying on older disk-oriented SATA or SAS pathways. That can reduce protocol and data-path overhead, though the result depends on the complete system and workload.
Supermicro’s April 2017 white paper reported platform-plus-adapter latency changing “from 10µsec down to 3µsec.” That is a historical, platform-specific vendor comparison—not a prediction of the latency an array or application will achieve. Supermicro’s NVMe comparison also reported 7–10 W avoided by not requiring a SAS host bus adapter or add-on card; that figure is likewise specific to the platform discussed, not a general data-center power saving.
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What the published benchmarks show—and what they do not
Vendor benchmarks illustrate possible results for particular configurations. They should not be treated as a direct promise for another system or workload.
| Test | Reported result | Important context |
|---|---|---|
| Cisco HyperFlex Epic benchmark | The M5 all-NVMe solution recorded less than 1 ms average read latency at roughly 40,000 IOPS and 36% lower average read latency than the M5 all-flash comparison; average write latency was 35% lower. | Cisco’s result applies to its named test. The report describes a write-log and capacity-drive arrangement; it is not a general all-flash guarantee. Cisco’s Epic benchmark. |
| Cisco Oracle concurrent workload test | The tested all-NVMe cluster showed a 30% IOPS gain at very low latency versus the all-flash cluster. | The NVMe test used four medium virtual machines and the all-flash test used three. HyperFlex and Oracle software versions and replication factors differed between configurations. This is not a clean media-only comparison. Cisco’s Oracle reference architecture. |
| Cisco Oracle scaling test | The tested all-NVMe cluster delivered 10–15% more IOPS at each load point than the all-flash cluster at very low latency. | The configuration differences described above also apply to this comparison. Cisco’s Oracle reference architecture. |
| Micron 6500 ION SSD comparison | Micron reports 20% lower active power and 56% better IOPS per watt. | This is a drive-level vendor comparison with a specified competitor QLC SSD. It does not measure whole-array or facility energy savings. Micron’s 6500 ION SSD page. |
The figures answer different questions: one measures a particular system benchmark, another compares a specific drive against a competitor. They cannot be combined into a universal estimate of how much faster or more energy-efficient an all-flash data center will be.
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Why storage latency is not application latency
Application response time depends on more than the storage device. Compute capacity, host processing, networking, software, queue depth, workload mix, controller utilization, and redundancy all affect the result. Cisco’s Oracle reference architecture says, “Simply adding low-latency storage is not enough,” emphasizing balanced compute and network design as well as storage. Cisco’s guidance applies that principle to its reference architecture.
Controller capacity can also become the bottleneck after the drives are no longer the limiting component. NetApp’s Epic guidance says that controller utilization may limit performance in its all-flash arrays. It also states in NetApp documentation: “Since year 2020, all Epic ODB workloads are required to be on all-flash storage.” This is a statement attributed to NetApp’s technical documentation and its Epic context, not a universal requirement for every enterprise workload. NetApp’s Epic ONTAP guidance.
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Where all-flash is most useful
All-flash is especially relevant where many random reads and writes, concurrency, or tight response-time targets make storage access a meaningful part of application performance. Transactional databases and virtualized applications are common examples of workload types to evaluate. A workload with colder, capacity-oriented data may have different needs and economics, so assess it separately rather than assuming every tier must use the same media.
NetApp’s Epic guidance describes a workload-specific requirement; it should not be generalized into a blanket rule for enterprise data. The right design may use all-flash for latency-sensitive workloads and another storage tier for data with less demanding access requirements.
Rank #4
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How to evaluate latency and efficiency fairly
Compare complete configurations against the service level your workload needs. Peak IOPS alone can conceal poor latency under load, limited capacity, or performance that degrades during routine maintenance.
- Match the workload: Use representative block sizes, read/write ratios, concurrency, queue depth, and burst patterns.
- Measure performance at the target: Compare average and tail latency, plus IOPS and throughput while meeting the latency target—not peak IOPS in isolation.
- Test sustained and disrupted operation: Check behavior at realistic utilization and during rebuilds, failovers, and other background work.
- Use usable capacity: Account for redundancy and realistic data-reduction assumptions, including whether the data is compressible or deduplicable.
- Count the whole system: Where measurements are available, include controllers, networking, and cooling when comparing work delivered per watt or rack unit.
- Compare deployment costs and constraints: Include purchase and operating costs, endurance, availability design, serviceability, protocol compatibility, and support lifecycle.
- Check benchmark comparability: Confirm platform generation, software versions, replication settings, and test configuration. Cisco’s Oracle comparison, for example, changed HyperFlex releases, Oracle versions, replication factors, and virtual-machine counts across the tested setups.
A useful efficiency measure is the amount of required workload delivered per watt, rack unit, and dollar while meeting the same service-level target. Drive-level power or IOPS-per-watt figures do not establish whole-array or facility savings.
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- Value NAS with RAID for centralized storage and backup for all your devices. Check out the LS 700 for enhanced features, cloud capabilities, macOS 26, and up to 7x faster performance than the LS 200.
- Connect the LinkStation to your router and enjoy shared network storage for your devices. The NAS is compatible with Windows and macOS*, and Buffalo's US-based support is on-hand 24/7 for installation walkthroughs. *Only for macOS 15 (Sequoia) and earlier. For macOS 26, check out our LS 700 series.
- Subscription-Free Personal Cloud – Store, back up, and manage all your videos, music, and photos and access them anytime without paying any monthly fees.
- Storage Purpose-Built for Data Security – A NAS designed to keep your data safe, the LS200 features a closed system to reduce vulnerabilities from 3rd party apps and SSL encryption for secure file transfers.
- Back Up Multiple Computers & Devices – NAS Navigator management utility and PC backup software included. NAS Navigator 2 for macOS 15 and earlier. You can set up automated backups of data on your computers.
Choosing between all-flash and all-NVMe
“All-flash” describes storage made entirely from solid-state drives; it does not specify the drive interface or protocol. An all-flash system may use SATA or SAS SSDs. “All-NVMe” specifies NVMe drives and their data path, usually over PCIe. That can reduce overhead relative to older pathways, but whether it improves a particular application depends on the system and test conditions.
For procurement, compare candidate arrays or servers using the same workload, performance target, usable capacity, redundancy, and operating assumptions. Cisco’s published test results show why labels alone are insufficient: its compared configurations differed in more than drive type.
System and component choices
Enterprise all-flash arrays and NVMe storage servers are system-level choices: compatibility, controller capability, redundancy, serviceability, and support matter alongside the media. A component example such as a U.2 NVMe SSD may be useful for a lab or a qualified server build, but a retail or standalone drive is not a substitute for an enterprise array. Confirm that any drive is qualified for the intended platform and workload. Supermicro’s current product information can change over time; consult its product listings for current model details.
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