computerworld.comFor content delivery networks to generate more revenue, they need to deliver more content. However, storing this additional data can be costly.Enter solid-state drive (SSD) technology. Once financially out-of-reach for many organizations, today’s SSD solutions are built for data center usage – at a Client PC price.Yet many organizations continue to base their storage investment decisions on a single metric – cost per gigabyte. That’s a mistake. Today’s organizations must look beyond cost per gigabyte and examine the numerous advantages SSDs offer over hard disk drives (HDDs). A better measure is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), which factors in all capital and operating expenses.Here’s how SSDs offer a better TOC over the lifespan of an investment.Capacity gains Technologies such as inline compression and deduplication can be used with SSDs to increase the effective capacity of the drives. In fact, these technologies can increase capacity by as much as 3 to 5 times, thereby significantly reducing the cost of flash storage needed. Better yet, SSDs’ inherently greater throughput and lower latencies can support the processing of data without compromising performance.Power and performance excellenceNot only do SSDs offer performance up to 1,000 times what hard drives can sustain, but their power requirements are 1/10thof HDDs. By delivering superior performance to HDDs in terms of transfer rates, latency, and input/output operations per second (IoPS), SSDs are also an ideal solution for delivering rich content.File sizes continue to increase with the everyday use of high-resolution photos and 4K videos. SDDs can satisfy this need for faster data transfers and sustainable high performance over a longer period of time.Greater longevityAlthough still limited compared to hard drives, the latest SSDs offer years of life in the data center – more than long enough to meet 3- to 5-year replacement lifespans.Electricity savingsThe more server racks and power-consuming components required, the higher the cost of electricity. Fortunately, SSDs typically consume less than half the power of HDDs, while delivering hundreds of times higher IoPS. These lower power requirements and less heat production can significantly reduce electricity and cooling expenses, especially in the case of frequently accessed data where drives are under a constant load.Superior reliabilityThere are a number of reasons why SSDs promise an average annual failure rate of as little as 0.5 percent (HDDs can be up to six times more likely to fail). First, they don’t require extensive amounts of redundancy to protect data against drive failures. And because SSDs are semiconductor based, their lifespan can be easily and accurately estimated, making the TCO calculation much more accurate.Enterprise SSDs, in particular, are more reliable than their client SSD counterparts. Because of their built-in backup power circuitry, data center-class SSDs can sustain rapid, 24/7 responsiveness, even in the case of unexpected power loss.The better betBy taking into account all capital and operating expenses that occur during the lifespan of an investment, TCO is a far more reliable and accurate measurement than total cost per gigabyte – and proof that SSDs deliver a greater return on investment.Think cost per gigabyte is the only metric that matters? Find out how SSDs can offer greater TCO in the data center.

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