kaled - 4:27 pm on Aug 26, 2007 (gmt 0)

So, if someone were to bring out a petabyte disk for the same price as today's terabyte disks, that would reduce the real-world cost of hosting by 1000... I don't think so. Or perhaps it would make the host a thousand times better, or perhaps it would make the websites on it a thousand times more interesting, or a thousand times faster, or bring in a thousand times as many users.

If the storage capacity is adequate, that's all you need, by definition. Also, if the CPU, etc. can keep up with speed of the network connection, that is good enough too.

There are probably arguments against the system I have suggested based on limited numbers of IP addresses, however, when 6Byte IP addresses are introduced, that argument will vanish.

Incidentally, when I introduced the idea of a miniature solid-state server, I only did so to provoke thought. In situations where physical size and power are more important than speed and storage capacity, solid-state storage will always win. Speed and capacity are likely to improve faster than the requirements of users, therefore, solid-state drives will edge-out magnetic hard drives. It may take ten years, but they have already seen off floppy disks - even high capacity ones. In ten years, solid-state terabyte drives might be achieved costing only $20. Do you really think joe-public will still need or want hard disks then?

Kaled.