Storage infrastructure sized around capacity and performance.
Storage quotations only compare if everyone is pricing the same usable capacity at the same performance level. Most of the work is stating the requirement precisely.
Not sure what to specify?
Start with how much usable space you need, what will use it, and whether speed, retention, or expansion matters most.
Specify usable capacity, not raw
Raw capacity is what gets quoted; usable capacity is what you get to use. A requirement stated as usable, with the protection scheme attached, produces directly comparable responses. Where the protection scheme is open, say so and let it be recommended.
Match the media to the access pattern
| Tier | Typical fit | What to state |
|---|---|---|
| NVMe SSD | Latency-sensitive databases, AI data pipelines, virtualization | Capacity, endurance class, form factor, interface generation |
| SATA/SAS SSD | General-purpose capacity with SSD consistency | Capacity, endurance class, mixed or read-intensive |
| Nearline HDD | Bulk capacity, backup, archives, media | Capacity per drive, drive count, rebuild tolerance |
| Mixed tiers | Hot working set plus bulk retention | Capacity and performance target per tier separately |
Performance requirements that belong in the request
- Sustained read and write throughput the workload must hold
- IOPS target and whether it is random or sequential
- Latency ceiling for the application that matters most
- Concurrency: number of clients or nodes hitting the tier
- Growth expected over the support term
Data protection and endurance
Drive endurance class, RAID or erasure coding scheme, hot spares and rebuild windows change both the drive count and the controller choice. A requirement that says only "100 TB" leaves all of that to interpretation, and the quotations will differ by more than price.
How 46 Systems handles storage requirements
State capacity, performance and protection; 46 Systems normalizes the requirement and organizes sourcing for storage servers, drives and expansion shelves against it. Existing drive lists and expansion into current systems are equally valid requests.
What helps us quote accurately
- Requesting raw capacity when usable capacity is what matters
- Comparing NVMe and SATA quotations as if they were equivalent
- Omitting endurance class on write-heavy workloads
- Forgetting controller, backplane or bay limits in the target chassis
- Planning no capacity headroom before the next refresh
Related pages
Describe your storage requirement.
Capacity, performance and protection — or configure a storage server.