For anyone who regularly works with a lot of data, RAID makes a lot of sense. It's fast and provides data redundancy. But with falling prices and rising capacities, a RAID array isn't as cheap to implement as it used to be.

Some might even argue RAID is outdated technology. At least that's what the folks at Voom Technologies want you to believe. On today's show, find out what technology Voom is developing and whether you should seriously start thinking about replacing that RAID array.

Voom developed Instant Save Instant Restore (ISIR). According to Voom, ISIR offers fast performance and data reliability on a single hard drive.

Read Patrick Norton's Voom ISIR first look

For a better understanding of ISIR, let's first take a look at RAID 1 implementation.

How RAID 1 works

RAID 1 involves data mirroring with at least two hard drives in an array.

• Data is written to both drives, creating complete data redundancy.
• RAID 1 offers the same amount of storage as a single drive in the array.
• Disable one drive and the others can still supply the data.
• A level 1 RAID writes slowly compared to a single drive but makes up for it with faster reads.

Intro to ISIR

ISIR also involves data mirroring, but only one large hard drive is involved.

• A single hard drive's data capacity is cut in half. If you have a 120GB drive, you have access to only 60GB of storage.
• The hidden storage is used to mirror the data, providing data redundancy.
• Voom claims it takes less than a second to save or restore data using special ISIR software.

What we'll look at
Tune in Wednesday as we put ISIR through the paces. Our benchmarks look at ISIR from several different points.

• Data recovery
• Cost
• Ease of use
• Practicality