Traditional disk technology has lagged behind processor and memory technology for some time. During this session we will discuss what the problems are and how new technologies such as enterprise class Solid State Drives (SSD) are helping. Until now, high performance storage systems have been designed around the characteristics of spinning magnetic media. This session will also discuss design considerations for such high performance systems, an overview of storage virtualization, and how these concepts are increasingly important with the move towards solid state storage media.