In this paper, we have presented AdaptRaid5, a block-distribution policy that takes full advantage of heterogeneous disk arrays.
This algorithm achieves a significant performance compared to the policies currently being used. We have proven this by using both synthetic and real loads.
Furthermore, we have also shown that arrays using AdaptRaid5 are able to serve many more disk requests per second than when blocks are distributed assuming that all disks have the lowest common speed, which is the solution currently being used.
Finally, we have to keep in mind that this algorithm has been evaluated for an array built from disks attached to a SAN, but it would also work in other array configurations.