Hardware RAID remains the preferred choice for most enterprise workloads due to its ability to deliver lower latency, higher input/output operations per second (IOPS), and superior rebuild performance under load, compared to software RAID solutions. Using a dedicated RAID controller, hardware RAID helps ensure stable, predictable performance, particularly as disk configurations scale, making it indispensable for mission-critical environments where consistency and rapid recovery are paramount. While hardware RAID excels in these areas, software RAID has gained traction in smaller setups. By making use of system resources, software RAID can deliver impressive bandwidth and performance in configurations with fewer disks, particularly when paired with NVM Express® (NVMe®) drives. Moreover, software RAID can provide much higher bandwidth than hardware RAID.
