Hybrid array

A hybrid array is a form of hierarchical storage management that combines hard disk drives (HDDs) with solid-state drives (SSDs) for I/O speed improvements.

Hybrid storage arrays aim to mitigate the ever increasing price-performance gap between HDDs and DRAM by adding a non-volatile flash level to the memory hierarchy. Hybrid arrays thus aim to lower the cost per I/O, as a more cost-effective solution than using only SSDs for storage. Hybrid architectures can be as simple as involving a single SSD cache for desktop or laptop computers, or can be more complex as configurations for enterprise storage and cloud computing.