As with all investments, it’s important to ensure maximum return on investment for storage purchases. This requires a solid understanding of what really matters most when it comes to storage in the data center.
Many enterprises still rely heavily on cost per gigabyte when making storage investment decisions. While cost per gigabyte can be a useful metric, it is not accurate when used alone because solid state drives (SSDs) offer numerous advantages over hard disk drives that aren’t measured solely by capacity. A better measure is total cost of ownership (TCO), which takes into account all capital and operating expenses that occur during the lifespan of an investment.
In a TCO calculation, cost per gigabyte still has a role, but it’s only a very small part of a much bigger picture. Other metrics – such as IOPS per watt and capacity and performance per rack – also come into play. The truth is that TCO can’t be measured with any single metric; it’s a mix of several measures that should be weighted according to the unique workloads of the storage system.
For more insights on evaluating the benefits of SSD vs. HDDs, download the white paper on “Redefining Storage Total Cost of Ownership.
