We all love the idea of using an SSD to replace our hard drives but there are just situations where it's just too expensive, like say in a server. Let's imagine that we can speed up our servers and make our hard drives seem as fast as if we'd replace them all with SSDs. Let's take a look at a hybrid array of HDDs and SSDs specifically the demo we saw put on by Adaptec MaxIQ at IDF Beijing 2011.

The increased speed and performance are achieved by automatic storage acceleration, which is facilitated using MaxIQ SSD Caching. The storage controller is in a unique position to monitor storage traffic and make decisions regarding "hot" data areas that can be copied to SSDs, automatically and dramatically increasing the speed of any system. Analysis of traffic patterns is made and copies frequently-read "hot" data are made to the SSD cache pool. This automatically increases performance without adding any management issues. The data in the SSD cache pool is simply a copy of the hot data residing on the HDD, eliminating many of the data migration concerns that get involved in placement algorithms.

This is the basic overview of what is explained in depth by Neil Cameron field engineer at Adaptec PMC, it's a very interesting interview in which I felt I learned a lot... and trust me when I say that SSD caching isn't usually something that I would cover, unless it was REALLY interesting!!

If you want more information please visit the Adaptec website.