We would like a RAID system to provide data protection in a small office. Can you say whether a hardware or a software RAID system is a better option? Also, is RAID 1 or RAID 5 the more reliable system for protecting our data?The specialized equipment means hardware RAID controllers are usually faster and more expensive than software RAID systems. I prefer to use a hardware RAID controller when possible because of the performance improvement.Software RAID is an affordable alternative, though, and delivers acceptable performance. Software RAID can be used with one or more hardware RAID controllers to implement multiple levels of protection.The various RAID levels use different arrangements to protect data. RAID 0 spreads your data across disks in “stripes” and provides no fault protection, but it can provide high-speed disk I/O. RAID 1 mirrors your data across disks to provide a complete duplicate of everything. RAID 5 combines striping and mirroring to allow an array to keep delivering data if one drive fails.Whether RAID 1 or RAID 5 is more reliable depends on whether you are more interested in having a complete back-up copy available on one or more disks or in I/O performance and being able to keep running through a drive failure. RAID 5 lets you replace the failed disk and keep running while the RAID array rebuilds itself in the background. Related content news analysis Western Digital keeps HDDs relevant with major capacity boost Western Digital and rival Seagate are finding new ways to pack data onto disk platters, keeping them relevant in the age of solid-state drives (SSD). By Andy Patrizio Dec 06, 2023 4 mins Enterprise Storage Data Center news analysis Global network outage report and internet health check Cisco subsidiary ThousandEyes, which tracks internet and cloud traffic, provides Network World with weekly updates on the performance of ISPs, cloud service providers, and UCaaS providers. By Ann Bednarz and Tim Greene Dec 06, 2023 286 mins Networking news analysis Cisco uncorks AI-based security assistant to streamline enterprise protection With Cisco AI Assistant for Security, enterprises can use natural language to discover policies and get rule recommendations, identify misconfigured policies, and simplify complex workflows. By Michael Cooney Dec 06, 2023 3 mins Firewalls Generative AI Network Security news Nvidia’s new chips for China to be compliant with US curbs: Jensen Huang Nvidia’s AI-focused H20 GPUs bypass US restrictions on China’s silicon access, including limits on-chip performance and density. By Anirban Ghoshal Dec 06, 2023 3 mins CPUs and Processors Technology Industry Podcasts Videos Resources Events NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe