Server's performance jump

[efranchi]

In order to compare the best server now avilable with SSD, also a MemoGt, and a best server with HDD, also a 73Gb 15k rpm and Fiber Channel Interface, the IOPS's jump should be a x30 factor. This in theory, whato does it means in the reality?
Does it mean that 1 compact server of Memo GT can replace 30 server with 73Gb 15k rpm FC? A RAID 5 of 8 MemoGT can replace 240 unit HDD 15k rpm FC? Am I right?
And how power consumption can you save?

[Kardax]

It really depends on what the server does. If you have 30 servers that do nothing but read 512-byte segments of data, then you could get the same performance out of a single server with a Memoright/MTron SSD. The only server role I can think of that comes close to that description is a web server farm.

Realistically a server does more than produce 512-byte pieces of data. The gains will be proportionally less based on how much "else" the server does. A database server does a lot of processing for example.

The other thing about condensing 30*73GB drives down to 1*128GB drive is you lose almost 2000 GB of disk space. This matters if the servers aren't all running copies of the same data.

I can definitely see SSDs taking over I/O intensive server roles... despite their high price, their performance can provide savings in other areas. CPU or RAM-intensive server roles (like database) will be much more hesitant to switch, because they don't benefit as much.

Widespread adoption of SSDs won't come until the price-per-GB drops substantially relative to conventional hard disks.