Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Cybersecurity Practice Test

Which RAID configuration is most popular in business environments?

1. RAID 0

2. RAID 1

3. RAID 5

4. RAID 10

The correct answer is: RAID 5

RAID 5 is often favored in business environments due to its balance of performance, data redundancy, and storage efficiency. This configuration uses block-level striping with distributed parity, allowing it to maintain data integrity while providing enhanced read performance. The distributed parity means that if a single drive fails, the data can still be reconstructed using the remaining drives, minimizing downtime and data loss risk. In addition to its fault tolerance, RAID 5 optimizes disk space since it utilizes only one disk's worth of space for redundancy, regardless of the number of disks in the array. This makes it economical, especially in setups where data availability and storage efficiency are crucial. The ability to continue operations even in the event of one disk failure is critical in business settings, where data reliability is paramount. In contrast, the other RAID configurations each have their own specific advantages and trade-offs, but they do not match the combination of performance and storage efficiency that RAID 5 offers in most business applications. RAID 0 provides no redundancy, RAID 1 duplicates data across drives which can double the storage costs, and RAID 10, while resilient, requires a significant amount of additional disk space due to its mirroring and striping method, making it less economical compared to RAID 5