A solid-state drive (SSD) enhances the performance of any app running on it as compared to an ordinary hard-disk drive (HDD). The reason is that a solid-state drive uses multiple interconnected flash memory modules, so there are no physical parts to move. In contrast, an HDD uses spinning disks and every reading or writing process causes the disks to rotate, which means that the speed of an HDD is restricted. Because the prices of the two types of drives are also different, a lot of PCs and web servers are provided with an SSD for the operating system and various applications, and an HDD for file storage, in this way balancing cost and performance. A website hosting service provider may also use a solid-state drive for caching purposes, which means that files that are accessed very often will be stored on this type of a drive for reaching better loading speeds and for limiting the reading/writing processes on the hard drives.
SSD with Data Caching in Hosting
The cloud platform where we create hosting accounts uses solely SSD drives, so your web applications and static sites will open very quickly. The SSDs are used for files, e-mail addresses and databases, so no matter if you open a page or check for new messages with webmail, the content will load right away. To offer even higher speeds, we also use a group of dedicated SSDs that work only as cache. All of the content which generates lots of traffic is copied on them automatically and is later read from them and not from the primary storage drives. Of course, that content is replaced dynamically for improved performance. What we achieve by doing this aside from the better speed is reduced overall load, thus decreased potential for hardware failures, and extended lifespan of the main drives, that is one more level of security for any info that you upload to your account.