Dell has started shipping flash storage technology, designed to improve flash performance and bring down the cost for data-intensive applications.

The new tiered flash technology integrates flash SLC drives with slower MLC flash memory, allowing users to place data for IOPS applications on flash, process more transactions faster and lower the overall costs by up to 80 percent.

The Texas-based company, which recently unveiled its new line of Windows and Android tablets, said the all flash storage solution costs less than any other hard disk drive alternatives on the market.

This is because it uses improved automated tiering capabilities along with built-in programmes that automatically tiers data and optimises performance.

The solution is also supposed to reduce rack space by 84%, latency by 90% and the solution cost by 56%.

Alan Atkinson, VP and co-general manager at Dell Storage, said: "The adoption of performance-intensive applications for big data analytics and process transactions provides organisations the opportunity to operate faster, make better informed decisions and improve customer service, but meeting the performance demands can be costly.

"Dell is the only major vendor that has found a way to offer all-flash solutions at the economics of disk. Dell’s practical approach integrates flash into a fully-functional storage array and uses enterprise storage features, like tiering, replication and management, to support high-performance data demands while also offering a new level of cost-efficient density."

The release comes after Dell was selected as the top choice for deploying flash and SSD technology, according a survey of 550 global IT leaders by ITIC and Storage Strategies Now.