Backblaze is again once more with a brand new SSD report for Q2 2022 (opens in new tab), showcasing the lifespan of its SSD boot drives powering its backup servers since 2018. However this time, Backblaze’s new replace confirms that SSDs are extra dependable than arduous drives.
Backblaze started recording SSD lifespans when it began switching from HDD boot drives to SSD boot drives in its backup servers. Nevertheless, because of the newness of the drives, it has taken 5 years for the corporate to actually being seeing any noteworthy variations in total common SSD lifespan conduct in comparison with its HDD boot drive lifespans with the identical age.
2018 all the best way to 2021 sees common SSD lifespan data which might be practically equivalent to arduous drive failure charges. Yr 1 by far exhibits us the bottom failure charges of all, with underneath a 0.66% failure charge for HDDs and no failure charge in any respect for SSDs. Yr two steps issues up in an virtually completely linear style, with HDDs and SSDs seeing a roughly 0.85% improve in failure charges.
This linear improve in failures duplicates itself in 12 months 3 and 12 months 4 as effectively, with each SSDs and HDDs exhibiting related failure charge curves — although with SSD’s being decrease total. At 12 months 4, HDDs are hovering across the 1.8% mark whereas SSDs have barely handed the 1% mark. After which issues seem to diverge.
The charts begin to change drastically in favor of SSDs at 12 months 5. HDD boot drive lifespan outcomes take a drastic uptick in failure charges, leaping from slightly below 2% to three.6% inside a 12 months. In the meantime, Backblaze’s SSDs head within the compete other way, declining from 1.05% to a powerful 0.92% common. That interprets right into a 3x reliability enchancment for SSDs over arduous drives.
Whereas this is not that shocking, given SSDs haven’t any shifting elements, it’s good to lastly have some arduous particulars primarily based on 1000’s of drives exhibiting that common SSD life expectancy will far outweigh arduous drives, particularly as soon as storage begins to get outdated. It is nonetheless potential for different elements like extreme writes or poorly designed firmware and controllers to trigger earlier SSD deaths. Nevertheless, such exceptions solely have an effect on a small variety of folks.
Backblaze concludes its report by stating, “At this level we will fairly declare that SSDs are extra dependable than HDDs, not less than when used as boot drives in the environment. This helps the anecdotal tales and educated guesses made by our readers over the previous 12 months or so. Nicely executed.” With 5 years of information, SSDs are doing very effectively total. Will probably be fascinating to see what occurs because the drives transfer into the six, seven, and eight years outdated vary.
