Will 245TB SSDs Finally Kill Hard Drives? KIOXIA on the Flash Supercycle

In this StorageReview podcast, Brian Beeler sits down with Maulik Sompura, Senior Director of Product Planning and Management at KIOXIA America, to talk about where flash storage is headed in the AI era. They dig into how hyperscalers influence SSD design, why EDSFF form factors like E1.S, E3.S, and the new E2 matter, and what it really takes to build drives for massive AI clusters, data lakes, and high density archives. Maulik also shares insight on KIOXIA’s 245TB class SSD, liquid cooled designs, and the supply and fab realities behind the current flash “supercycle.” Topics covered include • How KIOXIA plans and manages a fast growing SSD portfolio for AI and modern workloads • The role of hyperscalers and OCP in steering SSD specs, features, and form factors • E1.S, E3.S, E1.L, and E2 form factors and what they mean for density and system design • KIOXIA’s 245TB class E3.L drive, rack consolidation, and the real blast radius conversation • Why SSD rebuilds change the risk profile compared to high capacity HDDs • Liquid cooled SSDs for Gen5 and Gen6 systems and what has to change in the drive • Power, thermals, and the push toward 100 PB racks in AI data centers • Fabrics, networking, and why storage is often no longer the bottleneck • KIOXIA’s software work, including ISAAC and optimization around DRAM usage • What KIOXIA listens for at OCP and SC25 and how HPC ideas flow back to enterprise If you enjoy deep dives on AI infrastructure, flash, and real world data center design, hit subscribe and check out more coverage on StorageReview.com. 0:00 Intro and KIOXIA SSD portfolio overview 2:21 Hyperscalers, OCP and how specs shape enterprise SSDs 4:53 Next gen SSD form factors E1.S, E3.S, E2 and portfolio cleanup 9:18 245TB class SSDs, blast radius concerns and rebuild math 12:52 Liquid cooled SSDs for NVL72 and Gen5 or Gen6 GPU platforms 18:05 AI storage priorities plus KIOXIA software and ISAAC 25:06 Flash supply, fab investments and the AI supercycle 28:24 Flash vs HDD power, density and 100 PB rack math 32:32 Supercomputing, SC25 and what KIOXIA listens for 38:20 Closing thoughts and where flash is headed next #kioxia #ssd #datacenter