podchat
Why SSDs Won't Replace Hard Drives Anytime Soon
In this episode, we explore the reasons why solid-state drives (SSDs) are not expected to replace hard drives in the near future. Seagate's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) sheds light on the challenges that SSDs face in terms of cost and storage capacity.
One of the main factors hindering the widespread adoption of SSDs is their higher cost compared to traditional hard drives. While flash storage offers faster performance, it may not be necessary for all storage needs, especially when it comes to storing data in the cloud.
Furthermore, certain use cases still favor hard drives over SSDs. For example, hosting media content or video editing requires high throughput, which hard drives excel at. In these scenarios, low latency is not as critical.
Hybrid drives, which combine flash storage and traditional spinning hard disks, have not gained traction in the market. The episode delves into the reasons behind their lack of success.
Another aspect discussed is the impact of high input/output (IO) load on hard drive performance. The system can become unresponsive under heavy IO load, affecting user experience. Both Linux and Windows operating systems face challenges in this area, but Linux offers more tunability and options for mitigating the problem.
The episode also touches on the complexities of clustering and the careful planning and configuration it requires. While clustering can provide high availability, it may not be necessary for small-scale setups and can introduce additional complexity and maintenance.
Instead of clustering, a more practical approach for achieving high reliability is to have a production and hot spare setup with manual failover control. This setup ensures that a spare system is ready to take over in case of a failure, without the added complexities of clustering.
Join us in this episode as we explore the current state of SSDs, the advantages of hard drives in certain use cases, and the challenges of high IO load and clustering.