Micron Technology, Inc., today announced a new enterprise-class solid state drive (SSD) designed specifically for data center storage platforms. Enterprise applications are experiencing tremendous new demands for greater data throughput due to rapid growth in mobile applications, cloud services and connected devices. Micron's new M500DC SATA SSD addresses this growing need by providing the performance and data protection features of an enterprise-class drive at a great value.

"System administrators are realizing that there is a need for an SSD that delivers more enterprise-features than a client drive at a more affordable price than most enterprise drives," said Greg Wong, founder and principal analyst at Forward Insights. "Products such as Micron's M500DC SSD offer data centers the optimal balance of enterprise class features, performance and price for demanding 24/7 enterprise workloads."Designed to manage the massive amount of digital information flowing in and out of data centers every day, the M500DC is an important evolution in Micron's SSD portfolio. The drive is tailored for the critical applications that demand this next generation storage: transactional databases, virtualization, big data analytics and on-demand content streaming. This drive was designed to provide endurance of multiple drive fills per day, providing a balanced option between read-centric drives and high-end enterprise drives.

Built from the ground up using Micron's 20 nm MLC NAND Flash technology and fifth generation custom firmware, the M500DC ensures high reliability in this advanced media by integrating its Extended Performance and Enhanced Reliability Technology (XPERT) feature suite. The XPERT architecture intelligently integrates the storage media and controller into a comprehensive architecture that meets the high workload demands of the data center by extending drive life, protecting data during power failures and ensuring overall data integrity.

"Data centers are the linchpins connecting business and consumers to the information and services they want on a daily basis," said Darren Thomas, vice president of storage at Micron. "The M500DC is a workhorse drive tailored to our enterprise customers' needs-including increased capacity, exceptional performance and enterprise-class data protection."

The M500DC is available in 120, 240, 480 and 800 GB capacities and 1.8-inch, 5-millimeter (mm) and 2.5-inch, 7 mm SATA form factors. The drive is currently in production and is sold direct to OEMs and through Micron's distribution partners.