SSD prices keep declining
Due to the continuous decline in the price of new solid state drives, SSD in dedicated servers has become more popular and affordable. SSD’s are part of many server configurations across data centers around the country and globe. There are many benefits to using SSD’s over traditional storage drives. This includes faster access times, better efficiency, improved reliability and just as important, lower power usage. This helps keep those amps down and electricity costs in check. There also seems to be a growing trend toward implementing SSD’s into virtual environments and cloud solutions due to the faster access times and speedy read and write speeds, especially now since prices have dropped to an affordable level for many dedicated server providers.
Since an SSD in dedicated servers take up much less space than “regular” SATA and SAS drives, it can in many instances save a lot of space inside the server allowing for more virtualization and even lowering licensing costs since more can be hosted or virtualized inside of one server. On top of this, less power will be consumed since there is no need for extra servers in a rack each using power even when just idle. Reliability comes into play here too since there are fewer servers and less hardware being used resulting in a smaller chance of hardware failure, commonly from spinning hard drives, fans and power supplies.
SSD in dedicated servers is a good choice for IO intensive activity such as virtualization, databases, large storage backups etc. Data access can be significantly sped up during reading and write times. This allows for faster performance of the server overall and actually decrease DRAM usage saving costs in that regard.
Early adopters and advantages
With these facts, more data centers are implementing SSD’s early even though costs continue to decline. In the long run, web host providers will be ahead of late adopters. Server providers will reap the benefits earlier because they will save space, power, and efficiency. Implementing an SSD in dedicated servers early on can also prepare a server provider on how to use this storage media helping them to simply understand how to use them but also on how to use this media more efficiently.
SSD’s do not necessarily have to replace all storage media. Instead, they can complement current offerings or server configurations. This can include being part of a backup solution, premium Virtual Private Server accounts or even low end dedicated servers that have outdated CPU’s and power hungry PSU’s but can lower their power usage some with SSD’s and/or improve sales on slumping low end server orders.
Also important, do not overlook SMART scans. Make sure these drives have regular scans to determine any foreseeable errors or imminent failures. There is more information on the regular hard drive and SSD maintenance in this article.
Also worth considering is data destruction on SSD’s. For more information please read this article.
Comparing SSD’s to SATA drives by sheer storage space alone is probably not a good or even fair comparison. But with the several advantages, SSD’s can provide listed in this article, the advantages of SSD’s should still out way a minor disadvantage SSD’s still have. However, even that won’t last for long considering the continuing price drop on this type of media.