Also on Monday, HP introduced HP Smart Cache, a server-based SSD cache feature for its ProLiant Generation 8 servers. The Smart Cache system is designed for data that's in high demand from apps running on the server. IT departments can use multiple standard drive bays in a Gen8 server for that high-speed cache. HP SmartCache will be available soon, according to the company. The Gen8 servers were announced earlier this year.

For caching in HP's previous ProLiant servers, called Gen7, customers were able to use flash PCIe cards from Fusion-io. They can still use those if they choose, Mulchand said. But there are several advantages to using SSDs, which use standard hard drive slots, instead of the types of cards that Fusion-io uses, he said. One plus is that a server's drive slots offer more room for SSD capacity than is typically available for PCIe cards, Mulchand said. In addition, an HP Smart Cache can use HP Smart Array software for RAID.

A traditional array like the P10000 that is filled with SSDs typically won't match the performance of a purpose-built SSD platform, but there is still a sizable market for such a product as database administrators try to boost their storage performance, said David Floyer, a co-founder and analyst at Wikibon.

"In high-performance database environments, getting rid of disk is a good thing," Floyer said.

Likewise, using SSDs for on-server cache isn't quite as fast as using PCIe cards, but for some applications, it may be just the right thing, he said.