As SATA drives become faster and gain more features, they will be suitable for entry- level enterprise applications. The advantage of SAS and SATA drives in the same system is that they will be able to operate side by side on a SAS backplane in support of more than one application. Depending on the immediate need, either the SATA drives or the SAS drives, or both, can be selected by the system. The outcome is that the total cost of the system will be less, reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) and increasing the return on investment (ROI). In considering the best choice of disk drive for enterprise or desktop applications between Serial Attached SCSI and Serial ATA, performance, cost, capacity, integrity, scalability and flexibility all have to be factored into a purchase decision. For the desktop and laptop markets, SATA drives are preferred because they are lower in cost and have the features and benefits that support desktop applications. For transaction processing in the enterprise requiring a high level of performance and data integrity, SAS is the preferred choice. Where entry-level enterprise applications are concerned, the decision process is more complex since both types of drives can be used, either singly or in combination.
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