VDURA Introduces the Flash Volatility Index and Storage Economics Optimizer Tool

A new data-driven framework helps enterprises model flash pricing risk and design resilient storage architectures amid unprecedented market volatility.

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VDURA today announced the release of the Flash Volatility Index and Storage Economics Optimizer Tool, a new updated quarterly resource designed to help enterprises, infrastructure operators, and partners quantify flash pricing risk and evaluate storage architecture economics under rapidly changing market conditions.

Enterprise flash pricing has entered a period of sustained volatility driven by hyperscaler supply commitments and accelerating AI infrastructure demand. As a result, storage costs that were once predictable are now subject to sharp swings that directly impact capital planning, procurement cycles, and long-term architectural decisions.

Between Q2 2025 and Q1 2026, pricing for 30TB TLC enterprise SSDs increased 257 percent, rising from $3,062 to $10,950. Over the same period, HDD pricing increased 35 percent, widening the economic gap between performance and capacity media. This divergence has forced enterprises and their reseller partners to confront a difficult reality: storage quotes issued just months ago now require complete budget revisions.

The Flash Volatility Index provides a transparent view into SSD pricing, tracking how flash media volatility translates into real-world cost exposure and how that compares to the current HDD market. The accompanying Storage Economics Optimizer Tool allows organizations to model total system cost across different storage architectures, performance targets, and media mixes, giving infrastructure teams a way to evaluate trade-offs before committing capital.

The analysis shows that the cost multiple between SSD and HDD capacity expanded from 6.2x in Q2 2025 to 16.4x in Q1 2026, significantly increasing the financial risk of architectures that rely exclusively on flash. These dynamics are particularly acute in AI, HPC, and data-intensive environments where storage performance requirements remain constant even as media pricing fluctuates.

"We're not just tracking price increases - we're documenting a critical market shift," said Erik Salo, Senior VP of Business Operations, VDURA. "When quotes double or triple in a single quarter, resellers face the uncomfortable task of telling customers their approved budgets are no longer viable. Our goal is to bring transparency to this volatility and help the industry understand what's driving it, how long it might persist, and alternative options."

The report also examines the structural drivers behind the volatility. Multi-year hyperscaler purchasing agreements have locked up a significant portion of global SSD manufacturing capacity through 2026. At the same time, large-scale AI infrastructure deployments continue to absorb remaining supply. Industry outlooks suggest pricing pressure may persist into 2027 and beyond.

Using the Storage Economics Optimizer Tool, VDURA analyzed the cost impact of flash pricing volatility across common storage architectures for a 25 PB deployment delivering 1,000 GB/s of sustained performance. At Q2 2025 pricing, an all-flash architecture carried an annualized cost of $8.50 million. By Q1 2026, that same configuration increased to $24.54 million, a 189 percent rise driven primarily by flash media pricing.

Mixed-fleet architectures, which decouple performance from capacity by combining flash and HDD tiers, experienced significantly lower cost escalation over the same period. This illustrates how architectural flexibility can reduce exposure to flash market volatility while maintaining required performance levels.

Beyond flash, the report highlights compounding cost pressures across the infrastructure stack. DRAM pricing increased 205 percent over the same period, driven by demand for memory-intensive GPU systems. High-speed networking components face similar constraints, further amplifying total system costs for designs that require higher node counts to meet performance objectives.

The Flash Volatility Index and Storage Economics Optimizer Tool is available at https://www.vdura.com/flash-volatility-index-and-storage-economics-optimizer-tool/, along with supporting technical analysis detailing SSD pricing trends and architectural cost impacts. VDURA will publish quarterly updates to reflect evolving market conditions.

"After more than a decade of relatively stable NAND pricing, the rules have changed," said Salo. "Infrastructure leaders need real data to understand what's happening and plan accordingly. That's what we're providing."

About VDURA

VDURA provides high-performance mixed fleet storage solutions designed for enterprise workloads including AI/ML training, media and entertainment production, high-performance computing, and large-scale data analytics. The company's architecture enables organizations to optimize storage configurations based on workload requirements and market conditions without sacrificing performance. For more information, visit www.vdura.com.

Note: The Flash Volatility Index and Storage Economics Optimizer Tool uses publicly available market data and uniform commodity pricing methodology. It is intended as an analytical framework and does not represent pricing forecasts or vendor-specific commercial terms.