How do you improve capacity without sacrificing performance?

The easiest way to increase data storage performance is to reduce seek times. Most of the industry achieves this by "short stroking" - writing data only to the outer bands of the disk, leaving the inner bands (60 to 70 percent of the disk) empty.

Using proprietary Pillar QoS technology, Pillar segregates data on each disk platter based on accepted seek times. So your primary database files and other high-priority data (your Tier 1 data) is stored on the outer rings where performance is highest. Tier 2 data (records that are between 90 and 180 days old) is stored on the disk closer to the center of the platter. Tier 3 data (records between 180 and 365 days old) is stored further inside the disk, with archival (or Tier 4) data stored at the very centre of the drive.

This allows you to reduce the amount of data storage capacity you need by approximately 63 percent. Which also reduces your power, cooling, and space needs.

By utilising more of each disk, you can improve your Quality of Service and your ability to consolidate your drives (Drive Consolidation), both of which raise your Efficiency Quotient (EQ).