Seagate ST973401SS 2.5-Inch Disc Drives: Key to Cutting Data Center Costs (159 - Page 4

Driving the Server Revolution As detailed in Table 1 (see above), the far-reaching benefits of SFF 2.5-inch disc drives aren't limited to storage arrays. Today's 1U servers and blade servers are driving a new cost-effectiveness paradigm; adding 2.5-inch enterprise drives to these economical servers will significantly boost their ability to meet a broad range of enterprise applications. Deploying a 1U server with six SFF 2.5-inch drives enables it to achieve full RAID 5 functionality in half the space required by a 2U server equipped with six 3.5-inch disc drives, and the 1U server will provide a 150 percent performance improvement. For additional perspective, consider that 1U servers equipped with 2.5-inch drives also deliver: • 58 percent more IOPS on a IOPS/U basis [six 2.5-inch drives (1U) vs. six 3.5-inch drives (2U)] • 40 percent lower power consumption [six 2.5-inch drives (1U) vs. six 3.5-inch drives (2U)] • 220 percent more IOPS at similar power level (two 2.5-inch-equipped 1U servers vs. one 3.5-inch-equipped 2U server) A blade server with a single 2.5-inch, 10K-RPM enterprise drive will enjoy far greater reliability, while yielding 150 percent more IOPS, than an identical server utilizing a two-notebook-drive mirrored solution. Such notebook drives offer only 5400-RPM or 7200-RPM disc speeds; furthermore, they are designed for lighter, 8/5 duty cycles. Lastly, notebook-class units lack the fullfeatured enterprise I/O protocol that helps SFF 2.5-inch drives deliver superior performance. Profile: 2.5-Inch Enterprise Disc Drives SFF 2.5-inch, 10K-RPM enterprise disc drives employ a complementary suite of technical advances optimized for high-density enterprise storage environments: 2.5-INCH DIAMETER DISCS Offering the same capacities as typical 3.5-inch enterprise discs, 2.5-inch diameter discs enable improved seek times (15 percent faster) by packing the same amount of data in a smaller area, thus decreasing the distance the actuator must move to locate a given piece of data. SHORTER, STIFFER ACTUATOR Because it traverses the smaller radius of a 2.5-inch disc, the drive's actuator arm can be shorter, stiffer and lighter. Additional stiffness ensures higher strength and greater immunity to vibration, while a lighter arm requires less power to move it, cutting the drive's net power requirements. COMPACT DRIVE MOTOR Spinning fewer (two-disc maximum) smaller-diameter, lighter 2.5-inch discs, the drive's motor can be more compact and less powerful. This yields lower power consumption and heat generation; cooler-running drives can thus be more tightly packed for high-I/O-density applications. COST-EFFECTIVE DRIVE PROFILE The combination of features described above enables SFF 2.5-inch drives to be remarkably efficient, 70 percent smaller than conventional 3.5-inch drives while consuming 40 percent less power. This reduces a 2.5-inch-based system's cost in terms of both rack space and data center footprint. ENTERPRISE-CLASS RELIABILITY To withstand the rigors of online, transactional storage applications, the SFF 2.5-inch disc drive features true enterprise-class reliability, measured under full-duty-cycle conditions. Its 1.4 million hour MTBF is approximately 15 percent higher than priorgeneration 3.5-inch, 10K-RPM drives. COMPREHENSIVE RANGE OF INTERFACES SFF 2.5-inch drives are now available in both 2 Gbits/sec Fibre Channel and Ultra320 SCSI interfaces, with Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) released in early 2005. With this full range of enterprise-class interfaces, 2.5-inch drives will easily integrate into existing storage infrastructures. 4