The new drive’s expanded life span enables server systems to more efficiently run big data AI applications.
Samsung Electronics has unveiled its new enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) featuring Zoned Namespace (ZNS) technology — the PM1731a. Leveraging ZNS, the SSD will maximize available user capacity and offer an extended lifespan in storage server, data center, and cloud environments.
The ZNS SSD reflects Samsung’s long-term plan to leverage quad-level cell (QLC) NAND technology it its next-generation ZNS drives, enabling higher thresholds for storage performance and capacity in enterprise systems now and in the future, notes Sangyeun Cho, senior vice president of the Memory Software Development Team at Samsung Electronics.
ZNS allows data to be grouped based on their usage and access frequency, and stored sequentially in independent zones within an SSD. This feature allows ZNS SSDs to reduce the number of write operations, lowering the driver’s write amplification factor (WAF) and enhancing the SSD’s efficiency and longevity.
According to Samsung, its new ZNS SSD can achieve a WAF close to one, a major improvement over typical server SSD values between three and four. This will make the drive last up to four times longer than conventional NVMe SSDs, making it a greener, more sustainable solution for server infrastructures.
ZNS also allows users to take advantage of the SSD’s full capacity by eliminating the need for overprovisioning, which would have required reserving some storage space for background tasks. These improvements will enable enterprise customers to handle big data and artificial intelligence applications with much greater efficiency.
Also read: SSD Lifespan: How Long Will Your SSD Work?
Built upon Samsung’s sixth-generation V-NAND, the 2.5-inch PM1731a will come in two terabyte (TB) and four TB models. Ideal for enterprises and public cloud companies who run mission-critical, data-intensive applications, the SSD will feature dual ports, ensuring the drive is fully accessible for continuous operations and minimizing downtime.
Samsung will make its ZNS technology available to xNVMe, which provides software libraries and tools to improve the performance of NVMe devices. The company is also participating in the Storage Performance Development Kit (SPDK) community created by Intel, enabling SPDK users to implement ZNS more easily.
Samsung plans to mass-produce ZNS SSDs in the second half of 2021.
Read next: 9 Best SSD Health Check Tools: Monitoring SSD Health and Performance
Llanor Alleyne is managing editor of a portfolio of enterprise IT and SMB technology sites, including IT Business Edge, Enterprise Networking Planet, and Small Business Computing. In an editorial career that has spanned nearly 18 years, Llanor previously held editorial leadership roles at Residential Systems Magazine, Digital Signage Magazine, and media company AVNation.TV. Previously the host of the Digital Signage Digest podcast, Llanor is committed to understanding the impact of technology on social mores and folkways. Her deep knowledge base includes audio/video integration, IoT/smart home, immersive tech, IT, and more.
Enterprise Storage Forum offers practical information on data storage and protection from several different perspectives: hardware, software, on-premises services and cloud services. It also includes storage security and deep looks into various storage technologies, including object storage and modern parallel file systems. ESF is an ideal website for enterprise storage admins, CTOs and storage architects to reference in order to stay informed about the latest products, services and trends in the storage industry.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.
