Serial ATA (SATA) is a drive interface designed to replace the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. The storage world has been buzzing about SATA drives for years, debating how it stacks up against other technologies.
Users of the SATA interface are benefiting from greater speed, simpler upgradeable storage devices and easier configuration. While SATA drives don't match the performance of Fibre Channel (FC) hard drives, they provide the low cost per gigabyte and high storage densities crucial for "near-line" storage tasks such as performing backups and archiving.
Managing SATA drives
Part 1: Balancing SATA and SCSI
Selecting the right combination of SATA and SCSI disk drives in your system is critical. This tip offers suggestions on how you can strike an effective balance.
Part 2: Fixing conflicts between older and newer SATA drives
The two SATA speed standards sometimes conflict, but there are two easy workarounds for the problem.
Part 3: SATA technology advances and expands in the enterprise
SATA drives don't match the performance of Fibre Channel but provide the low cost per gigabyte and high storage densities that are crucial for "nearline" storage tasks, such as performing backups and archiving.
Part 4: Plugging into external SATA
Although the protocol remains the same and the same drives can be used in internal and external SATA applications, eSATA connections are very different from their predecessors.
Part 5: Choose SCSI over SATA for enterprise servers
SATA's lower cost and new features make it attractive, but SCSI remains a standard for enterprise server hardware.
Part 6: SATA can fill storage upgrade for older computers
When repurposing older computers and deciding how to upgrade their storage capacities, SATA is a logical candidate. But some hardware requirements may mean extra labor or expense.
