Is Hardware RAID Dead?

TLDRHardware RAID technology is becoming obsolete due to the high performance of NVMe SSDs and changes in operating system handling of block devices. There are alternative ways to achieve high performance and low latency without relying on hardware RAID.

Key insights

🚫Hardware RAID technology is no longer necessary due to advancements in NVMe SSD performance.

🔀Software and application-level solutions can effectively replace hardware RAID for block device operations.

🚀NVMe SSDs offer high throughput and low latency, making hardware RAID less relevant.

💡Operating systems are now optimizing how they handle block devices, reducing the need for hardware RAID.

💻Modern storage devices, such as NVMe SSDs, have built-in intelligence to prefetch and optimize data access, further minimizing the need for hardware RAID.

Q&A

Why is hardware RAID becoming obsolete?

Hardware RAID is becoming obsolete because of the high performance and low latency offered by NVMe SSDs, as well as advancements in operating system handling of block devices.

What alternatives are there to hardware RAID?

Alternatives to hardware RAID include software and application-level solutions that can directly access block devices, as well as optimizing storage devices with built-in intelligence.

Do NVMe SSDs offer better performance than hardware RAID?

Yes, NVMe SSDs offer high throughput and low latency, making them capable of outperforming hardware RAID in many scenarios.

How do operating systems handle block devices?

Operating systems have evolved to optimize block device handling, allowing for efficient data access and minimizing the need for hardware RAID.

Are there any drawbacks to using hardware RAID?

Hardware RAID can introduce additional latency and may not fully utilize the potential performance of modern storage devices, such as NVMe SSDs.

Timestamped Summary

00:00Hardware RAID technology is becoming obsolete due to advancements in NVMe SSD performance and changes in operating system handling of block devices.

02:16NVMe SSDs offer high throughput and low latency, making hardware RAID less relevant.

03:02Operating systems are now optimizing how they handle block devices, reducing the need for hardware RAID.

04:23Hardware RAID can introduce additional latency and may not fully utilize the potential performance of modern storage devices, such as NVMe SSDs.

06:24Alternatives to hardware RAID include software and application-level solutions that can directly access block devices, as well as optimizing storage devices with built-in intelligence.