Good insight Ian...thanks.
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [SLUG] Is RAID worth doing?
> From: "Ian C. Blenke" <ian@blenke.com>
> Date: Thu, July 13, 2006 4:42 pm
> To: slug@nks.net
>
> David R. Meyer wrote:
>
> >>From the standpoint of the customers I work with on a daily basis, I'd
> >say about 80% are using HW RAID for the reasons listed above. Those
> >with SW RAID who had experience with HW RAID preferred HW RAID. Never
> >had someone tell me that they preferred SW RAID.
> >
> >
>
> I prefer software RAID. Strongly.
>
> Cost is the primary motivation, followed closely by my like for lower
> level software control of hardware.
>
> Hardware RAID _does_ make sense for customers with:
> 1. Deep pockets.
> 2. Love of hardware vendor reliance.
> 3. Need for low CPU overhead.
>
> When you're paying for Hardware RAID, you're usually paying for
> redundantly built servers with high-cost SCSI/SAS drives (more platters,
> lower bit densities, much better MTBF). When the hardware fails in some
> obscure way, you call the vendor's tech in to fix it (and you're down in
> the interim if you didn't architect your software to operate across
> multiple servers in a redundant manner). If you have loads of cash
> handy, you might have a cold/warm standby or some spare hardware to swap
> out to get your expensive server back up and running.
>
> Commodity computing looks at the problem differently: if you architect
> the software solution to a critical computing system in a way so that
> all nodes are stateless (or otherwise replicated) so that any hardware
> outages are transparent to the application users, you no longer need
> expensive hardware. Plus, you have far more resource capacity to scale
> your application per $ spent.
>
> You buy one big redundant server. I'll take 8 commodity PCs. I'll have
> more space, more memory, and more raw CPU power, but I'll need to build
> my software differently to take advantage of it.
>
> That's my take on hardware RAID. For that matter, that's my take on most
> things hardware centric.
>
> A hardware solution to a problem is generally more expensive than a
> software one. That is to say a hardware architected solution is usually
> more expensive to a software architected one. It is usually cheaper to
> throw commodify hardware with custom software at a problem rather than
> build a unique piece of hardware to solve that particular problem.
>
> For a fun read, check out this blog post:
>
> http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan?entry=the_rise_of_the_general
>
> Custom ASICs are losing ground to more general software solutions to
> problems, and that makes a software guy like me _very_ excited.
>
> It's all about living with the economics...
>
> - Ian C. Blenke <ian@blenke.com> http://ian.blenke.com
>
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