Rising memory and storage prices are creating new cost, availability, and architecture challenges for IT solution providers as AI infrastructure demand outpaces the industry’s ability to add supply.
Channel Insider spoke with Eric Herzog, CMO of Infinidat, a Lenovo company, and Brendan Lynch, the CEO of Eastern Computer Exchange, about what the market pressures mean for service providers and resellers.
AI demand strains memory and storage supply
The pressure reaches across several related but distinct technologies. AI servers require large quantities of DRAM and high-bandwidth memory to process models, while training, inference and agentic applications also generate data that must be stored in enterprise SSDs or high-capacity hard drives.
Manufacturers, meanwhile, cannot add fabrication, packaging and drive-production capacity quickly enough to match the increase in demand.
“Massive investment in AI infrastructure across the world, especially by hyper-scalers, has stretched component producers (DRAM and Flash) to their limits. At the same time, the demand for hard drives, used in hybrid arrays, has also dramatically increased,” Herzog told Channel Insider.
“This has led to increases in hard drive pricing, though not as dramatic as the price increases for all-flash array configurations.”
For partners, the imbalance is shortening quote-validity windows, complicating refresh budgets and increasing margin risk when component costs change between proposal and delivery.
“It can cause longer lead times for certain technologies, including all-flash and hybrid storage, to be delivered by any vendor. And now, because of the limited supply, the higher system and infrastructure costs for enterprise solutions in data centers is an issue that we have to deal with,” said Lynch.
Partners rethink procurement and customer budgets
For partner leaders like Lynch, the pricing and availability pressures are forcing organizations to rethink traditional approaches to procurement and deployments.
“We have taken on the challenge to identify and implement workarounds, so we can mitigate the blunt impact on customers,” Lynch said. “When we are putting together an end-to-end solution across storage systems, servers, and other IT components to a complete solution, we need to incorporate into our toolbox effective tools for budget management and be more open to hybrid storage approaches.“
Lynch told Channel Insider the strategic planning required for customer projects right now goes beyond the technical aspects of the solutions in play to address wider business needs across CapEx and OpEx budgeting.
“We also need to be more mindful of balancing technical prowess and business value. We need to enable our joint customers to conduct better budget management, and this will come back to help us to continue to grow and be more profitable, especially because we are helping our joint customers save money against the backdrop of rising prices of all-flash storage arrays,” Lynch said.
“The market instability creates new opportunities for us as a partner.”
Infinidat promotes consolidation and efficiency
Infinidat, a Lenovo company, offers enterprise storage and data protection systems spanning all-flash, hybrid and backup appliances.
Its portfolio includes the InfiniBox SSA all-flash platform for performance-intensive workloads, the hybrid InfiniBox system for high-capacity primary storage and the InfiniGuard backup appliance. The platforms use Infinidat’s InfuzeOS software and Neural Cache technology to manage workloads and support consolidation across fewer physical systems.
“One of our all-flash systems is less expensive than 11 all-flash arrays from a competitor, and the lead time for one all-flash array from Infinidat is shorter than the lead time for 11 arrays,” Herzog said.
“The cost savings from consolidating multiple storage arrays from another vendor onto a single InfiniBox storage system helps offset the higher costs of all-flash by saving on power, cooling, floor space, rack space and IT operations.”
For partners, those efficiency gains are crucial to addressing customer needs.
“Being able to mitigate skyrocketing prices by utilizing intelligent hybrid storage, consolidating storage, and optimizing power and cooling gives us an advantage as an IT solution provider and Infinidat partner,” Lynch said.
Supply pressures could persist into 2027
Relief is unlikely to come quickly. Memory manufacturers are investing in additional production, but new fabrication plants, cleanroom space and advanced packaging capacity can take years to begin contributing meaningful supply.
TrendForce expects NAND supply growth to begin outpacing demand in 2027, potentially easing constraints during the second half of that year, while near-term demand for DRAM, flash storage and high-capacity drives remains elevated.
Until supply and demand move closer to balance, partners will need to help customers decide where all-flash performance is essential and where hybrid storage can satisfy workload requirements at a lower cost.
“My outlook is that adoption of high-performance hybrid storage will increase, and joint customers will deploy all-flash Infinidat solutions for their most highly performant applications and workloads,” said Herzog.
“Our channel partners will be on the forefront of helping these joint customers strategize and ultimately make the best decisions with the right tool for the right job for the data infrastructure.”