When it comes to hosting, choosing storage for your server is an aspect you shouldn’t overlook. The correct storage option ensures that it will operate appropriately with minimum complications.

A server holds a significant amount of data, the access to which should be kept from being interrupted. Therefore, a drive is supposed to match specific storage criteria for proper performance and data backup.

Usually, web providers offer various hosting options based on different operating systems (Linux or Windows VPS servers) and different storage options, which ultimately affect the price of a hosting plan.

Today we’re going to focus on how to choose the right storage option for your server.

What you need to know about HDD storage

HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is an “oldie but a goodie” among storage options. It reads data by moving the parts called platters. The speed of the mechanical movement eventually determines how fast the drive can read data.

Hard disk drive is a traditional choice that provides extensive storage space. However, it is associated with lower read-write speed and a high likelihood of physical damage. It makes HDD one of the cheapest options for storage of up to 20TB of data. Depending on speed and capacity, the cost ultimately varies, but HDD is usually considered a budget-friendly storage option.

SSD storage overview

SSD (Solid State Drive) utilizes flash memory to process information. It is significantly faster and much more durable than HDD because it doesn’t require moving parts to function, which, therefore, lowers the chance of physical damage.

With the appearance of SSDs, the usage of HDD notably decreased. Solid-state drives is proved to be five times faster than the conventional hard disk drive. If we were to further compare these two, the risk of failure or malfunction of HDD is significantly higher than SDD, again due to the likelihood of mechanical parts wearing off.

Also, SSDs consume less power but offer a higher performance rate through faster access to files. If the HDD needs 10-15 msec to access the file, the SDD needs just 0.7 msec.

Solid state drives are commonly used in high-performance VPS servers, being a modern standard of information storage.

What is NVME?

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is an even faster alternative to SSD. It works similarly to SSD, with NVMe also being a variant of flash storage.

The drive connects to the motherboard directly through an “express” socket. Because of the uninterrupted connection, NVMe works much faster and can process a higher number of operations at once via several lanes.

It also doesn’t need an S-ATA or SAS controller like SSD does and processes commands simultaneously rather than in a queue, which makes NVMe the fastest storage option of all.

Which storage option to choose?

HDDs are a perfect option when it comes to price and storage volumes. It does the same job as SSD; and even though it has lower processing speed, it is still cheaper.

So, in a scenario where your website holds large volumes of data and doesn’t require sustaining a large number of visiting users, HDD might be the perfect option for you. The same goes for just storing data, which you don’t intend to access often, and backing up information.

SSD-based options are a good fit if it’s good speed and performance you’re looking for. It is versatile in its application as it can be used with virtually any device.

Solid state drive is somewhat of a “common ground” between HDD and NVMe. SSDs consume less power, are visibly faster than HDDs, and are less expensive than NVMe.

NVMe, being the fastest option on the market, is an option for you if you need high storage functionality for your product to thrive. If SSD doesn’t cover your website’s needs, NVMe is the next best option for you.

NVMe is excellent for e-commerce websites with many visitors and coinciding processes, faster editing of videos, SaaS products for smoother operation, and overall extensive load, providing trouble-free and speedier experience in all instances.

If your product requires operational multitasking, NVMe is the right fit for you, with it being able to handle up to 60,000 commands simultaneously. For example, Apple uses the Non-Volatile Memory Express protocol, which makes Apple devices faster than most Android-based ones. NVMe is overall compatible with different hardware and software, including various operating systems.

VPS servers working on NVMe are incredibly fast and cost less than using dedicated servers, offering the necessary customization and scalability if needed.

Conclusion

Since hosting plans differ primarily based on the hardware they utilize, storage parameters are a big part of the price. Not only that, storage capability is a vital component of your product’s performance.

Therefore, it is essential to choose a storage option that not only fits your budget but also complies with your product’s specifics and functional requirements. Whatever they are, we hope that the information comes in handy, and that you’ll be able to find the right storage option for your server.

Secondary storage can refer to Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Sold-State Drives (SSD).

Hard disk drives (HDD) are the most common method used to store data on a computer.  Data is stored in a digital format on magnetic surfaces of the disks.  These disks are known as platters serve to read-write data and can spin at around 7000 times a second.

Unfortunately, hard disk drives have very slow data access when compared to, for example, RAM.  The latency, i.e. the amount of time it takes for a specific block of data to be processed by the read-write head, can be significant.

Solid-state drives remove the problem of latency significantly.  They have no moving parts and all data is retrieved at the same rate.  There are two types of solid-state drives: Flash (use NAND chips) and EEPROM (use NOR chips).

Flash is the most common type of solid-state storage device, which store data by controlling the movement of electrons within NAND chips.  The data is stored as 0s and 1s in millions of tiny resistors within the chip.  This effectively produces a non-volatile rewritable memory.

Electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) technology on the other hand, uses NOR chips instead of NAND and is the more expensive option of the two.  The main difference is that EEPROM is faster in operation and allows data to be read or erased a single byte at time, whereas NAND only allows blocks of data to be read or erased.

There are several benefits to using SSD technology rather than HDD:

– they are more reliable (no moving parts to go wrong)

– they are lighter & thinner (therefore more suitable for laptops)

– they have a lower power consumption

– data is accessed considerably faster than HDD.

The main disadvantage of SSD is the questionable longevity of the technology.  For this reason, SSD technology is not used in servers, for example, where a huge number of write operations take place every day.