Anybody who has had the unfortunate luck of struggling with storage issues or had to shoulder the unbelievable costs of high performance flash storage will be glad to know that hybrid storage solutions now exist.
Hybrid storage is the answer to the common problems of power users, hosting administrators, IT managers, and other entities that heavily rely on storage facilities.
For those who are not familiar with hybrid storage, it is a kind of storage that makes use of two distinct types of storage. Being a hybrid, this storage type logically attempts to maximize the benefits provided by each part it has while working on reducing their less than impressive qualities. Hybrid storage is mainly composed of the traditional hard disk drives, or HDD and solid state drives, or SSD.
Advantages and Disadvantages of HDD
When it comes to tried and tested storage devices, the traditional hard disk drives definitely top the list. HDDs are dependable, affordable and can be purchased in different storage capacities. Its downside is its efficiency which is often limited by its mechanics. In reality, these disks can only spin as fast as it can which makes performance the greatest weakness of the HDD. They tend to be bulky as well. In a larger environment which calls for more than one HDD, all these devices can actually take up space and consume massive amounts of energy.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SSD
Solid state drives, or most commonly called SSDs, utilize a relatively newer storage technology which does not rely heavily on the spinning of mechanical disks. If you have a digital camera or VoIP capable smartphone, you are probably aware that it has a removable solid state disk or SSD card. If you constantly work with a computer, you have probably encountered or experienced storing data in a USB flash drive. These two, the SSD card and the USB flash drive, are perfect examples of solid state storage devices. They have no moving parts and are considerably small and compact as compared to traditional hard disks. If you notice, these kinds of storage devices also do not generate heat. The only downside of the SSD is its cost. They are often more costly than traditional hard disk drives and the cost can weigh heavily on organizations and enterprises who need large amounts of storage space.
The Perfect Combination of HDD and SDD: Hybrid Storage
Just like any other hybrid, the latest Hybrid Storage highlights and maximizes the strong points of both SSD and HDD. It also works on masking if not eliminating both of their disadvantages.
A hybrid array usually makes use of hard disks in storing a large chunk of data and uses SSDs for keeping and accessing the data which is often used. The Hybrid Storage embodies the Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule.
The Pareto rule states that around eighty percent of an occurrence’s effects actually stem from twenty percent of its causes. The data on your computer is the perfect exemplification of the Pareto principle. Consider the data stored on your computer: 80% of it, although significant, may not be utilized on a regular basis which leaves the remaining 20% the data that you often use. What the Hybrid Storage does is it utilizes the most cost-effective storage system for all the data that is not constantly used and puts a solid state disk to work to store the data used on a regular basis. The result is astounding since users are able to store different kinds of data properly without unnecessary costs while keeping the efficiency of their systems.