Disk Capacity, Performance, and Cost: Maintaining the Balance.
Bruce McNutt · 1998
Given a family of similar disks with various options for storage capacity, many planners consistently adopt the largest disk so as to hold down storage costs; others, aiming for performance, opt for a disk capacity toward the low end of the available range. This paper tries to reconcile both of these views, by developing a quantitative framework within which disk capacity, performance, and cost can all be considered. We gain a better understanding of the recent history of disk storage, and show how disk performance objectives can be matched with cost and capacity. 1 Introduction Rapid change has become the everyday routine for those engaged in deploying disk storage technology. Every so often, it is necessary to step back and reassess assumptions. This paper reexamines long-held assumptions about disk capacity, performance and cost. As disk storage has evolved over the past three decades, a curious tension has developed between two key players in the capacity planning game. On ...