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This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.
Many organizations are considering swapping out some of their Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for Solid State Drives (SSD) to increase I/O throughput and power density (IOPS/Watt). But how do you compare cost vs. performance to determine the best technology mix for specific application environments?
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has completed an in-depth analysis of the factors that need to be considered in comparing HDDs and SSDs for any given application. It concluded that assessing Total Cost of Ownership offered the most realistic basis for comparison - assessing both the direct and indirect cost of deploying a storage system over its life cycle.
Direct costs, labor and capital costs are familiar and relatively easy to measure. However, indirect costing becomes more complex to expose. Industry studies have shown it can cost more to operate a storage device over three years than to buy it.
To get a clean TCO, it is essential to objectively include all relevant data including cost for:
* Acquisition. Analysis of acquisition costs needs to include cost per drive, software licenses and differing architecture options. Consider that, in a high random I/O transaction application (i.e. Exchange email, banking transactions, etc.), a single SSD could replace an array of 10 or more HDDs, resulting in a smaller footprint, higher performance and lower costs for supporting hardware and software licensing.
* Maintenance and Repair. HDDs have an annual failure rate of 2% to 8%. So...