[begin part that should be excerpted in the front-page blurb]

Nevertheless, last [week | month | year] we [http://http://arstechnica.com/forum/sympoll/index.php?dispid=8∞ polled] our readers to see how much disk space y'all were sportin'. And as it turns out, a surprisingly large number of respondents were pulling strong for the ?ber-storage categories. What is so appealing about pimpin' obscene amounts of giggage these days? Backups? Probably safer than stuffing CDRs under your mattress, but redundant offsite tape libraries don't have a lot to fear. Convenience? Sure, "data at your fingertips" has always sounded good, but is it that bothersome to just reach for the DVD when the urge comes to revisit the Trenchcoat Twins∞?

What I am willing to argue is that the technology behind your sexy new pair of 'Cuda V's is poised to bring an altogether new class of applications into the 'standard' PC space. Coaxing ridiculous speeds and capacities out of our hot rods no longer need be the sole domain of companies with large IT departments, and with that ability comes the potential to offer truly advanced setups priced for the masses.

Don't get me wrong: sidestepping the enterprise-level budgets courted by EMC, Compaq, and IBM/Tivoli will require us to compromise; if you have a half-mil to drop on a mission-critical project, the established players still have the best solution for you. The difference is that today we have the tools to compromise intelligently -- so if you're looking to roll your own video server, storage area network, or digital library, you've come to the right place.

[end excerpt]

Before we get too far, you might want to peruse Ars' Skinny on RAID∞ to get up to snuff on the difference between RAID level 0, 1, and the rest. I've also compiled a glossary of storage-related terms we're likely to encounter.

TheCompromise