I thought that today I would try to clear up a misconception that I encounter fairly often on the topic of data storage. I’ll start with a couple of examples:
Say a customer is looking for a RAID solution like the NewerTech Guardian MAXimus to store their important information. It’s a fantastic product and certainly a wonderful solution for your backup or main storage, but here’s the important part: when I ask the customer if this is going to be a backup or their main storage, the response I sometimes hear is, “Well it’s a RAID, so doesn’t it back itself up?”
Another scenario that I have seen, unfortunately, is this. A customer calls in because their RAID has failed, and they are extremely distraught because all of their critical information is on it—tax documents, raw footage for a movie in production, irreplaceable family photos, dissertations, you name it. I’ll ask, once again, if this was their main storage or a backup, and I’ll hear back, “Well it was a RAID. That was the whole point!” Article Continues…
Breaking it down to its simplest forms, there are two main reasons to add a RAID setup to your computer system. Performance and Redundancy.