SSD Performance vs Spinning Drives

Posted on April 06, 2012

Posted by Gerben Meijer in Cloud Performance 1 Comment

Storage has traditionally been made up of spinning disk drives, which consist of a movable read/write arm (think an old record player). In order to read the data the disk spins and the arm moves along reading it. Although it is reliable, a tried and true system, it is a quite slower than its counterpart, solid state drives (SSD).

A solid-state drive has no moving parts, instead it using microchips to store data (similar to portable USB flash drives). SSD’s take out the revolutions, meaning less time for the machine to process your information. This system, although more expensive, is faster, more durable and much quieter.

Because it is a fairly new advancement in the cloud, there has been much debate over if it is truly a better system.

One of the biggest debates is about cost effectiveness.

The main problem with SSD’s is their short lifespan. When you go with the faster performance, you lose the robust life span of the spinning disk drives. However, even with the shorter lifespan, using SSD’s will improve you and your customers’ performance, so the main question ends up being: is it worth the cost for you?

In IMEX research’s report “Is Solid State Storage Ready for Enterprise & Cloud Computing Systems,” they look at the growth of a standard IT infrastructure into “cloudization.” Using SSD as the main force for the transfer. They go on to discuss how SSD’s are creating a shift in the storage industry, a shift that will probably head towards using more solid state storage rather than spinning disk drives.

In the end it comes down to who will benefit the most from a faster drive. Companies that produce highly transactional applications on their website will want a faster system for their customers (like SSD’s). Where someone who mainly stores written documents, may not see the benefit from the higher cost.

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1 Response to SSD Performance vs Spinning Drives

5 Reasons to Switch to SSD - SSD Cloud Computing News and Industry Blog says: October 15, 2012 at 10:00 am

[...] hard disk drive (HDD) in favor of a solid-state drive (SSD) foundation for your computer system. It makes sense to weigh the differences of each since this is the drive that serves as the work horse and core of your business’s [...]