Redundant Array of Independent Disks

FTP Today builds every server with a minimum of 5 high performance hard disks in a RAID-5 configuraion (the number 5 is not because we use 5 disks). RAID-5 stripes data at the block level and also utilizes parity. With RAID-5 technology data can only be compromised if two drives fail at the same time.

Hardware RAID

RAID-5 requires a hardware controller in the server to manage the redundant group of drives. In contrast, RAID-1 which is used by most of our competitors because it is cheaper to implement (most often with only a software controller, again saving expense).

What does all this mean to you?

First, that FTP Today is not using a cheap implementation of hard drive redundancy that is common in the industry (RAID-1 with software RAID); FTP Today is using the best form of rudendancy that money can buy. Second, because it uses parity, a single hard drive failure within the array will cause no data loss, nor will the server need to be taken off line in order to replace the failed drive and rebuild the array.