According to the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), the definition of RAID 6 is: "Any form of RAID that can continue to execute read and write requests to all of a RAID array's virtual disks in the presence of any two concurrent disk failures”.

By using additional parity calculations (two parity disks rather than the one disk required by RAID 5), RAID 6 can protect mission-critical data from two concurrent disk drive failures

RAID 6 is essentially an extension of RAID 5 that allows for additional fault tolerance by using a second independent distributed parity scheme (dual parity)

Second extra drive in the RAID 6 array can be thought of as an “active” parity drive

The hot spare in RAID 5 is still an option but not nearly as necessary in RAID 6 since the array is still RAID 5 protected after the first drive failure

The reason why there are so many different RAID levels is that there are many different ways to configure a bunch of hard disks, and many different needs of RAID users. Essentially choosing the best RAID level is a combination of give and take based on specific requirements such as: Applications, Fault Tolerance, Performance, Capacity/Disk Utilization, Reliability, Physical Space available as well as Budgetary Concerns.

“ There was a limited selection of storage devices with hardware RAID 6 and an easy-to-use web management, built-in alert and reporting functions, auto shutdown, redundant & trunkable data connections, and support for large packet sizes. Enhance Technology's RAID storage solutions had the features we was looking for at a competitive pricing. ”
A.J. Lacomba, RPI

Enhance Technology storage solutions can effectively meet your storage requirements by offering you solutions that meet your Connectivity Requirements, Optimized Performance, High Density Form Factors, Simple Management Leveraging Multiple RAID types as well as save you significant $$$$ at acquisition as well as in long term ROI.

Click HERE to see the Quick Reference RAID Chart outlining the most commonly used RAID Types

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