STORAGE
SSD vs HDD – which is best? When looking for storage options, businesses have had the choice of HDD or SSD for some time – but what are the differences between them, and which is best for customers?
The immediacy of the threat to the hard disk drive (HDD) market has long been exaggerated. The threat of solid state drives (SSD) isn’t as critical as it may seem. It is no secret that HDDs are slower than SSDs, but the cost per capacity remains lower, which is a huge benefit to organisations that need to store massive volumes of data. HDDs are also still relatively common in non-premium consumer devices. With SSDs becoming faster, cheaper and more spacious, the use cases for the HDD is definitely shrinking. HDDs are also being pressed from the opposite direction, with the increase in the capacity of magnetic tape, this means the case for using hard drives for archival purposes isn’t quite so strong. However, HDDs have more storage capacity, and offer easier data recovery if they are damaged. They also have a longer lifespan than SSDs, so they are still a serious player in the market. Although, in an enterprise context, it is expected that the maximum SSD capacity will jump significantly off the back of new technologies, closing the gap on hard drives from a cost per capacity perspective. The evidence may suggest that SSDs may be better than HDDs if you only want faster read and write speeds, but studies show they may not be quite as eco-friendly as HDDs. SSDs may have a much larger environmental impact than HDDs due to the manufacturing process, but on average they consume less energy than HDDs. SSD and HDD: what’s the difference? With the recent drop in PC demand and the speed of SSD adoption, there has been a definitive shift in the reduction of hard drive shipments. Although this drop-off in HDD adoption may look bleak, there is still a case for HDD when it comes to performance- focused enterprise drives and nearline units – bridging the gap between online and offline storage. HDD and SSD have their place in the market, and it all it comes down to what suits your business needs the best.
SSD vs HDD
Why HDD? l Capacity: If you’re after a lot of storage space, HDD is the way to go. Great for storing lots of large files, making them good for holding photos, videos and games. You can easily get up to 8TB or more space cheaply l Budget: SSDs are typically more expensive per gigabyte than traditional hard drives. Plenty of capacity for the least amount of money l General users: If you download or store large amounts of media files locally, you will need a hard drive with more capacity, SSDs get expensive quickly for big video and music collections. Why SSD? l Robust: SSDs don’t have any moving parts, making them more robust and a better choice for laptops and other mobile devices. People who shove their laptops into their bags indiscriminately will want the extra security of an SSD l Speed: If you need things done now, spend the extra bucks on SSD for quick boot-ups and app launches. SSDs are the way forward if you’re looking for speed and performance l Long battery lives: Using less power than HDD, laptops may benefit more from longer battery lives with an SSD l Low noise: If you’re recording or mastering music, HDDs can be noisier. Go for quieter SSDs. Currently, businesses continue to be best served by maintaining a balanced storage stack comprising tape, SSDs and HDDs – covering off every use case in the most economical way. The overall takeaway? Hard drives win on price, capacity and data loss recovery. SSDs work best if speed, ruggedness, form factor, noise or fragmentation are important factors to you.
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