With the rapid growth of data, the demand for more important and secure storage is also growing. A lot of organisations are becoming data-driven, and hence, the need for different types of web storage or cloud storage came into existence. Since everything is put online, it is essential to choose the appropriate kind of web storage or cloud storage for your website hosting. Selecting the right web storage from choices like SSD, HDD, and SSHD is challenging, but you will have to pick an appropriate one for your business utility. Therefore, you will have to take a closer look at the three most sought-after cloud storage options for doing a website hosting, namely – SSD, SAS, and SATA.
SD (Solid State Drive)
SSD is one of the popular options for web storage hosting. SSDs use a non-volatile NAND (Not-AND) type of flash memory. Therefore, they need no magnetic or mechanical parts for operating or constructing them. Hence, this absence of movable parts causes SSDs to perform well as compared to others. SSDs not just provide faster access, but also read and write the data at a rapid rate. Modern SSDs are now up to 16 TBs that run over 550 MBPS of data. The access time for them is concise like a fraction of a microsecond. Hence, most web hosting providers choose SSDs as they are reliable and suitable for their needs.
When compared to SATA and SAS, the efficiency of SSDs is as high as 60 times! This means that the primary goal of SSD prefers reliability, performance, and speed over storage. Therefore, it provides less storage space than other options, but it focusses on high speed and performance due to its engineering.
SSDs are also famous for being more durable. Not having mechanical or magnetic parts makes it non-vulnerable to performance degradation which comes with time. Well, this can’t be the example for HDDs. The movements and vibrations cause HDD to deteriorate over time, and it may lead to corruption of data.
Although, SSDs come with a price too. The high performance enhances the cost factor, and if you want to host your business then you will always choose high performance! Therefore, SSDs are the most expensive type of web storage or cloud storage.
SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)
SAS is the value-added kind of the ‘Small Computer System Interface’ (SCSI) which replaces the parallel SCSI (older version). SAS is known to transfer the data quicker than SATA. It also has a greater ‘Mean Time Between Failures’ (MTBF), which indicates that SAS is faster and extra reliable than SATA. Although, SAS cannot match and overpower the performance of SSD.
SAS has longer cable length, fast speed and high performance. Therefore, it is more suitable instead of SATA for web hosting, especially when you choose VPS hosting.
When the cost is compared, SAS lies in the middle of the SATA and SSD; being expensive than SATA and inexpensive than SSD. Hence, SAS is seen to have a range of performance capabilities between SATA and SSD.
SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment)
Earlier, there was Parallel AT Attachment (PATA), and SATA is the evolution of the same which offers many benefits like shortened cable length, quicker and efficient transfer of data via high signal rate, lesser cost, and some more.
In comparison between SATA and SAS, there is hardly any notable physical difference. Even the performance is quite constant and similar to both of them. But, the hosting customers won’t always go for the linear performance; they have other service expectations too. Having a linear performance guarantee that the website is going to run neatly, but it doesn’t guarantee the ability to handle the erratic traffic. This flaw is the only flaw of SATA, and that is a big one. Unlike SAS, SATA breaks down under the inconsistent load of traffic and super-busy times. Basically, SATA focusses on storage rather than speed.
The only prominent feature of SATA is that the cost is quite low. For example, you will have to pay the price of 6 SATA cables for one SAS cable. SATA became associated with the home-computers later as their reputation got a “less reliable” tag.
But SATA is not so bad to consider as an option for running your hosting platforms, no need to doom it. But, it is always better to know everything about the possibilities and every factor counts.
So, finally, which one out of the above-mentioned is the best for hosting?
Well, I guess it is pretty clear and evident in itself that which option is the best one, of course, SSD. Even though it is the most expensive option from all three; the features – performance, storage capacity, and data transfer speed are superb. SSD values reliability and speed over the storage capacity, and if that is precisely what you are looking for, then you must choose SSD. If these three are to be put in a technical order then, 1st is SSD (High performance & data transfer speed with Less storage), 2nd is SAS (Good performance & data transfer speed with Less storage), and 3rd is SATA (Low performance & data transfer speed with High storage).
Just having big storage is not where you are going to invest all your money for your web hosting. Data security, high performance, better access, less access time, and fast data transfer is what you definitely need. Investing a significant chunk of money in the appropriate option now, can reap you greater value in manifolds, right?