Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
redundant array of inexpensive disks
References
Britannica AI Icon

redundant array of inexpensive disks

computing
Also known as: RAID
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

RAID, which stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, is a data storage technology that combines multiple physical disk drives into one or more logical units. This is done for the purposes of data redundancy, improved performance, or both.1

RAID configurations are used in high-performance computer network servers to store data redundantly for greater reliability and faster access. Different RAID levels exist, each offering a different balance of performance, reliability, and cost. For example, some RAID levels mirror data across multiple drives to protect against drive failure, while others use techniques like striping to distribute data across drives for faster read/write speeds.1

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
2 Britannica Sources
  1. raid
  2. computer memory

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.