Datacenter Server SSDs aren't just better performance and costlier versions of desktop devices. They come with unique characteristics that are essential to storage devices.
Many businesses use consumer-grade SSDs for their business.
The story usually follows the same lines as "consumer SSDs are just as good as Datacenter SSDs, and they are cheaper" or "we opened both SSDs, and the flash chips are the same".
SSDs are the primary source of the hardware costs of a new storage option. Therefore, it's not a surprise to find that businesses might try to reduce costs.
This is fine for consumer customers but is a dangerous choice for businesses.
Making a sacrifice on the equipment that holds the most precious of your assets - your information (or the data of your customers) is not the right thing to "cheaper" on.
However, it would be best if you avoided Desktop server SSDs for storing business information.
If you don't need the data in any way or the possibility of losing your company due to loss of data is something you'd like to take.
Difference between Consumer Server SSDs and Datacenter SSDs
The most common differences in endurance, throttling power-loss protection, latency, and cost (duh, you pay what you are paying for!).
SSD Endurance
SSD Throttle
SSD Latency
SSD Endurance
Desktop-grade SSD designed to handle the low loads of typical desktop applications. SSD endurance has become a popular area.
The NAND flash utilized in SSD Server Hard Disk can only be used for a limited amount of writes before using it again.
With these loads, desktop-grade SSD can last for years. Storage systems consolidate load from multiple applications, and the burden on the device is more intense.
With this kind of load, desktop-grade SSD can fail within months rather than years.
SSD Throttle
To minimize costs Desktop, server SSDs are constructed with certain limitations. In low loads, they offer very high throughput. However, this cannot be maintained for long durations.
After a couple of minutes of continuous use, the performance of the desktop SSD reduced dramatically.
This isn't typical for regular desktop usage; however, some desktop-grade server SSDs could begin performing more slowly as spinning the Server Hard Disk when the storage system was used more times.
SSD Latency
Low latency is one of the main factors that determine the performance of an application, but it is better has applications that are slow rather than losing data.
That brings us to one aspect of datacenter SSDs that isn't widely known but is vital for Server Power Supply protection.
Power Loss Protection
The power-loss protection feature built into server SSDs is essential for the proper functioning of various storage systems.
Many devices cannot recover data because they think you've got it if you do not have it. However, they'll slow down and can also severely wear the SSD device.
Additionally, some methods are equipped to work on desktop server SSDs.
There is the performance against—cost in addition to—the balance of reliability (trade-off).
Time Balancing
For instance, it could be a lightweight workload that can be perfectly fine, waiting for ten milliseconds or less for write operations to NAND media.
It could also be a data set that doesn't care about the availability or integrity of data, so it doesn't flush write-outs to the NAND media in any way.
The top-of-the-line software-defined Storage Solutions (SDS) uses the most affordable Datacenter quality SATA SSDs with an endurance of approximately 1. DWPD (Drive Writing Per Days).
The less capable SDS options require SAS SSDs that have 3+ DWPD.
In any case, discuss with the storage (software) supplier to find out the type of hardware suitable for your needs and deliver the expected results based on your business needs.
