computerworld.comCompanies have long relied on solid-state drive (SSD) technology to power their data centers. But not all SSD tools are built equal. Many of today’s off-the-shelf and client-grade solutions can fail, just when it matters most.That’s a problem. Not only do organizations rely on data center servers to keep critical systems up and running, but they can be an important source of revenue, especially for cloud services providers.The high cost of failureThen there are the considerable costs of data center server failures: According to an ITIC survey, 81% of respondents indicated that a single hour of downtime cost their business over $300,000. And a staggering one-third or 33% of enterprises estimate an hour of downtime to cost $1 million to over $5 million. Not to mention the psychological and productivity toll an outage can take on IT teams.Here’s why a data center-class SSD is better built for today’s enterprise.Calculating Capex vs. OpexOrganizations often select client-grade SSDs for their lower cost per gigabyte. But while upfront capital expenditures can run lower, these gains are easily offset by higher operating costs, such as labor, support, floor space, cooling, and electricity. In the end, enterprise-grade SSD technology offers a better total cost of ownership (TCO) over the lifespan of a drive.You break it, you pay for itBecause manufacturers may not have designed and validated client drives to be used in the enterprise, they offer little protection against unexpected power losses. Rather, in the event of a failure, an organization typically has to cover the cost of replacement drives.An enterprise-class SSD, on the other hand, is more likely to still be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. Enterprise SSDs also have built-in back-up power circuitry in the form of capacitors that provide enough power for the SSD to complete any write operations that are in progress.Handling workloadsNAND chips inside client SSDs are designed to handle client workloads, which are much lighter than enterprise SSDs. But they aren’t validated to withstand as many P/E cycles as the chips inside enterprise SSDs.That’s because data sets stored on enterprise systems move continuously – a challenge for standard SSD solutions to manage. As a result, client SSDs have a substantially lower lifespan in an enterprise environment and require frequent replacement, resulting in higher failure rates, increased labor costs, and higher risk of data loss and downtime. Instead, organizations need data center-specific SSD technology that can handle steady and continuous streams of data while tracking the life expectancy of a drive.A long-term winWhen organizations look past metrics such as cost per gigabyte, it’s clear that client SSDs are designed primarily as replacements for hard disk drives (HDDs) in PCs. A better return on investment is data center-class SSDs, which are built to sustain rapid, 24/7 responsiveness.Thanks to an extensive qualification process, Samsung has developed an enterprise-class SSD that functions above and beyond client-grade drives. Learn more.

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