Seagate ST973401SS 2.5-Inch Disc Drives: Key to Cutting Data Center Costs (159 - Page 1

TP-534 • From: Seagate Global Product Marketing • February 2005 Technology Paper 2.5-Inch Enterprise Disc Drives: Key to Cutting Data Center Costs Introduction Cost reduction continues to be a top priority throughout the enterprise, with IT departments under particular pressure to trim expenses wherever possible. Many IT professionals have identified storage consolidation as a core strategy in their battle to cut data center costs and optimize efficiency. Such consolidation can reduce the number of data centers and their floor space requirements, as well as lower both ancillary infrastructure expenditures and storage management costs, all while significantly boosting storage system utilization. Small form factor (SFF) 2.5-inch enterprise disc drives are spearheading a new class of high-I/O-density storage solutions that facilitate rapid and cost-effective storage consolidation. Remarkably compact and efficient, SFF 2.5-inch drives are key to implementing data centers that provide higher IOPS/U and lower TCO: • SFF 2.5-inch drives are 70 percent smaller than 3.5-inch drives, enabling them to deliver 130 to 150 percent greater system performance in the same footprint. • SFF 2.5-inch drives use 40 percent less power and run cooler with reduced airflow requirements, allowing greater storage density and data center space efficiency. For enterprises seeking to maintain current capacity and I/O performance levels while reducing storage's data center footprint, the cost benefits of 2.5-inch drives are remarkable, with up to 66 percent less rack space used and 45 percent lower power consumption (see Figure 1). Figure 1