Reliability and longevity are of special importance to business owners. The longer equipment can be made to last without needing repair or replacement, the better a company’s bottom line looks. A good rule of thumb is that the more moving parts any given device has, the more likely it is to break, and thus, need repairs.
This, of course, is not the only consideration, but it is an important one. It matters because the traditional hard drives in servers (HDDs, or hard drive disks) that have been in use for decades have lots of moving parts, and as such, are much more prone to breakdowns than the newer SSD (solid-state disk) technology. The question then, is should you consider switching all your drives to SSD?
The answer is more complex than it first appears. On the one hand, the above is certainly true. SSDs have no moving parts, and as such, you’ll never have to worry about them breaking – at least not in the traditional sense. All tech eventually wears out though, and SSDs are no exception to this rule.
Initial cost is another big factor. Over the longer term, SSDs wind up being an overall better value because they use less power and aren’t subject to mechanical failure, but this comes at a price. SSDs are initially more expensive. There are few companies that can afford to simply make the switch in a single round of purchasing, even if they wanted to.
Capacity is another critical factor, and here, the traditional HDDs still have the advantage. SSDs don’t have as much raw storage capacity as their older counterparts, though they are catching up.
A common solution used by many businesses is to mix and match, swapping out some of their HDDs for SSDs in order to provide an ideal mix of price and performance. Over time, as costs continue to fall, and the capacity problem is eventually resolved for SSDs, it’s easy to imagine that businesses will naturally gravitate to a 100% SSD solution, which makes the “mix and match” approach an ideal way to begin.
All that to say, you should definitely consider swapping at least some of your company’s drives out, but if you’re unsure, then before you proceed, consult with an expert. We’ll be able to guide you, and help design an upgrade path or plan that’s in perfect alignment with your company’s unique challenges and needs.
