- Repurposed enterprise SSDs amplify failure risks under sustained AI workload pressure
- Flash wear remains a physical limit that software optimization cannot erase
- Boost Recovery Trades Short-Term Capacity Gains for Long-Term Reliability Concerns
The current shortage of enterprise SSDs has forced data center operators to rethink how they manage storage resources as AI workloads increase pressure.
A senior Dell executive warned that reusing enterprise SSDs creates serious reliability risks at a time when storage systems remain in short supply.
Flash media degrades with repeated write cycles, and older drives can fail more quickly once operators put them back into demanding environments.
Flash burnout and risk of data loss
“Flash drives wear out with use. Reintroducing old media increases the likelihood of accelerated component failure, data unavailability and, in the worst case, catastrophic data loss,” said David Noy, vice president of product management for the company’s unstructured data solutions.
These results directly conflict with the stability that AI tools require, as these systems depend on uninterrupted and predictable data access.
This warning comes as analysts expect SSD supply constraints to continue for at least another year.
Some storage vendors have responded by promoting drive recovery strategies, in which operators remove existing SSDs from one system and reuse them in another.
VAST Data has described this approach as a way to expand limited flash capacity based on software-based data reduction.
However, Dell management maintains that this response reflects market pressure rather than technical improvement.
“Flash recycling as a strategy is a great marketing phrase, but also a sign of pressure, not progress,” Noy said, “That may seem pragmatic, but it carries real risk. For software-only storage vendors, it’s a sign that desperate times call for desperate measures.”
The company maintains that reused flash memory carries the same physical wear and tear regardless of software efficiency and has reiterated its long-standing support for tiered storage architectures that combine flash memory and spinning media.
By allowing less critical data to move away from flash, organizations can reduce their reliance on scarce and expensive SSD capacity.
Dell maintains that this flexibility provides resilience when prices change or delivery times are extended, without forcing customers to use an all-flash environment.
Other providers have taken similar positions. DDN, for example, supports multi-layer storage systems spanning NVMe, conventional SSDs, disk drives, and cloud resources.
Automated data movement policies allow information to move between tiers while maintaining acceptable access speeds.
Like Dell, DDN suggests that reducing reliance on premium flash hardware offers a more sustainable response to shortages than trying to reuse obsolete components.
Dell’s criticism also raises flash recycling as a trust issue, suggesting that software vendors may not be responsible when reused hardware fails.
Through Block and files
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