SNIA Developer Conference September 15-17, 2025 | Santa Clara, CA
NVMe SSD Classification
NVM Express® technology is driving the next generation of SSDs for data centers. NVMe™ SSD are not limited by legacy form factors or protocols, and they can better address the needs of servers and storage in enterprise and hyperscale data centers. Each of these use cases has distinct requirements and application environments, and they are outlined in the table below. There will always be exceptions to these guidelines, but these are generally fit profiles for NVMe SSD classification.
More details on each of the classification use cases are provided in a revised NVMe SSD Classification White Paper which describes how NVMe SSDs are used in enterprise servers, enterprise storage, low latency SSD, data center/hyperscale servers, and data center/hyperscale storage environments. This classification may also apply to SATA and SAS SSDs.
Updated August 2024
| NVMe SSD Classification | Enterprise Server | Enterprise Storage | Low Latency SSD | Data Center / Hyperscale Server | Data Center / Hyperscale Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications / Use Cases |
Traditional DAS/RAID CRM/ERM/collaborative/ HCI |
AFA Primary Array Storage |
Read/Write Cache Tier 0 between DRAM and TLC SSD Write-intensive workloads Write logging (metadata) Low latency SSD plus QLC -lower TCO than TLC |
Boot Cloud data storage Server data storage |
Durable storage RAID EC JBOD/JBOF |
|
Form Factors |
M.2->E1.S 2.5-inch (U.2) E3.S E3.L AIC |
M.2->E1.S 2.5-inch (U.2) E3.S E3.L |
2.5-inch (U.2) AIC |
M.2->E1.S
2.5-inch (U.2) |
2.5-inch (U.2) E1.L E1.S |
| Power |
8.25-11W (M.2) 12-25W 2.5-inch (U.2) 25-40W (E1.S, E1.L) |
8.25-11W (M.2) 12-25W 2.5-inch (U.2) 25-40W (E1.S, E1.L) |
20-25W 2.5-inch (U.2) 9W (AIC) |
8.25-11W (M.2) 12-25W (E1.S) 12-25W 2.5-inch (U.2) |
12-25W (E1.S) 25W (E1.L) |
| Performance | High performance, read intensive and mixed workload class drives, and best in class performance | High performance, mixed workload, and best in class performance |
High performance, write heav workloads, and best in class performance |
IOPS/TB scaling, mixed workloads | Read bandwidth, seq write (ZNS) |
| Latency | Care about average latency Better than SAS/SATA |
Mixed workload QoS | 1/10 to 1/3 the latency of TLC SSDs | Read QoS, tail latencies | Read priority |
| Endurance- Drive Writes per Day (DWPD) |
1 DWPD (Read-Intensive) 3 DWPD (Mixed Use) 5-10 DWPD (Write-Intensive) |
1 DWPD (Read-Intensive) 3 DWPD (Mixed Use)
|
30, 60, 100DWPD | <=1 DWPD | <1 DWPD |
| Capacity | 1-8TB | 2-30TB | 375GB - 3200GB | 1-2TB > 4TB | 4-8TB TLC, >8TB QLC |
| Management |
NVMe-MI SNIA Swordfish™ (NVMe-oF™) |
NVMe-MI SNIA Swordfish (NVMe-oF) |
NVMe-MI SNIA Swordfish (NVMe-oF) |
NVMe CLI (IB via SW) NVMe-MI basic for temp only (BMC) |
NVMe CLI (IB via SW) |
| Features |
Security Manageability Single-port, RAID |
Dual-port (2.5-inch form factor) X8/16 PCIe AIC Higher prices (greater than SANs) Capacities up to 30TB |
Dual-port (2.5-inch (U.2)) Predictable Low Latency Very high endurance |
Single-port QoS
Sets / IOD TRIM performance Multi-tenancy |
ZNS SDS |
| SSD Vendor Examples | Enterprise Server | Enterprise Storage | Low Latency SSD | Data Center / Hyperscale Server | Data Center / Hyperscale Storage |
| KIOXIA | CM7 Series | CM7 Series | FL6 Series | XD7P Series, CD8P Series | XD7P Series, CD8P Series |
| Intel | P4510 (3.0), P5500 (4.0) | D4510 (3.0) | P5800 | P4510 (3.0) | P4326 (QLC, 3.0) |
| Micron |
9550 PRO, MAX
7450/7500 PRO, MAX
|
9550 MAX |
N/A |
7450/7500 PRO |
7450/7500 PRO 6500 ION |
| Samsung | PM1733/5, SZ1735 | PM1733/5, SZ1735 | SZ985 | PM9A3 | PM9A3 |