Let's look at other kinds of hybrid disks. Another example is the emerging 32-Gbyte drives that combine FLASH memory (the same that is used in your USB thumb drive) with solid state disk (SSD) to replace 2.5-inch ATA disk drives used in laptops. These new hybrids boost performance and reduce power consumption.
Another example is the kind of disk drive that implements tiered storage on disks themselves, by incorporating a 160-Gbyte disk drive front-ended with 256 Mbytes of FLASH memory with a smaller RAM-based cache in front of that. The idea behind these drives is to reduce power consumption by levering FLASH, potentially boosting performance. Sounds almost like a mini-MAID in a drive or enclosure.
To stand up to the growing concern around security and encryption, disk drive manufactures are starting to ship encryption-enabled disk drives, as are USB thumb drive vendors.
Then there are the 1-Tbyte disk drives, which aren't yet shipping. On the surface, these may not even seem like hybrid drives. Under the surface, the multiple 500-Gbyte disk drives with a RAID and NAS controller or USB port act like miniature NAS filers. Are these really hybrids? Well, if they could be reduced to the size of a thumb drive or iPod, I might consider granting a holiday dispensation. Otherwise, they're just snazzy little storage devices.
One kind of hybrid storage device you may start hearing more about is the aggregated collection of many small disk drives in a canister or sealed enclosure featuring embedded RAID, power management, and other features. Kind of a throwback to the dual-HDA and short-stroked disk drives, these items are meant to improve performance, capacity, and availability, though the focus is also on power consumption.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
