Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGUREĀ 5.6 Types of scaling
Vertical scaling
Diagonal scaling
Original
Horizontal scaling
Disk Performance
The disk is currently the storage medium of choice for most enterprises and users because of
its relatively cheap price, passable performance, and large capacity. But despite major leaps
in capacity technology, disk performance is currently not where we want it to be, or where
it should ideally be. This is because of the inherent limitations of mechanical moving parts.
Mechanical parts simply cannot keep up with the performance of electronics. That is why
solid-state drives are beginning to take over the market, but the technology is still new and
it has a long way to go. So for now, we are stuck with the disk.
Since we are stuck with the disk, we might as well make the best of it and keep it per-
forming at its peak. There are two categories associated with disk performance: access time
and data transfer rate.
Access Time
Access time is the response time of the disk drive, which is the measure of time before the
drive can actually transfer data. The factors controlling this facet of the drive are its various
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