The benefits extend further if an SSD is used in the server, even more so as it can have encryption and compression on the fly without affecting read and write times.

Crucial,a Micron Technology company, undertook research on some basic tasks like computer start-up to duplicating a 1GB file. The result was an average of six times faster.

Crucial SSD Senior product marketing manager Jonathan Weech, said, “The first question to ask when considering SSDs is, ‘what’s an hour of your time worth?’ Then take that further and ask, ‘how much is an hour of increased productivity worth to the business at large?’ For most businesses, a 6x productivity gain is worth far more than the minimal cost of an SSD.”

Storage Review stated that SSDs not only draw at least 50% less power — 2-3 watts — but they significantly reduce heating and cooling needs. Mean time between failure is now more than 35% longer than HDD, data transfer rates (real) are at least 100% faster than HDD (up to 550MB/s versus 100MB/s.) and file opening at least 30% faster. It concluded that HDD is still popular due to its lower cost, and even that disparity was rapidly shrinking.

So regrettably the days of getting a cup of coffee while the database is reindexed are over.