EMC has predicted that enterprise flash storage drives will cost as little as fibre channel alternatives by 2010.

The storage giant has been promoting flash drives as the future of enterprise storage at its user conference in Las Vegas. Flash drives had been the “most significant announcement” EMC had made this year, MC storage division president Dave Donatelli told IT Week.

He predicted the cost of the revolutionary drives would dramatically reduce in the near future. "We see a dynamic where the price of flash technology is coming down faster than that of fibre channel drives. By 2010 I expect they will have reached price parity."

Flash drives store data using flash memory, unlike conventional hard drives that use mechanically rotating discs. Although flash drives use 38 per cent less power than rotating disc, currently the cost, on average, around 30 times more.

But Donatelli said this should soon change, “We are trying to drive the price down as fast as possible.”

“I believe flash drives are going to change the way storage products are designed,” added Donatelli.