A solid-state drive (SSD) enhances the performance of any application running on it as compared to a common hard-disk drive (HDD). The reason is that an SSD uses a variety of interconnected flash memory modules, so there're no physical parts to move. In comparison, a hard disk works by using spinning disks and every reading or writing process causes the disks to move, meaning the speed of an HDD is limited. Since the prices of the two types of drives are also different, a lot of computer systems and web servers are set up with an SSD for the operating system and various applications, and a hard disk for file storage, in this way balancing cost and effectiveness. A hosting service provider could also use a solid-state drive for caching purposes, thus files that are accessed frequently will be located on this type of a drive for accomplishing higher loading speeds and for minimizing the reading/writing processes on the hard-disk drives.

SSD with Data Caching in Shared Hosting

The cloud platform where we create shared hosting accounts uses solely SSD drives, so your web applications and static Internet sites will load very quickly. The SSDs are used for files, e-mails and databases, so no matter if you open a page or check for new emails using webmail, the content will load immediately. So as to ensure even higher speeds, we also use numerous dedicated SSDs which work only as cache. All the content which generates lots of traffic is copied on them automatically and is later on read from them and not from the main storage drives. Of course, that content is replaced dynamically for improved performance. What we achieve that way apart from the better speed is decreased overall load, thus decreased probability of hardware failures, and prolonged lifespan of the main drives, that is one more level of protection for any info that you upload to your account.