What does RAID 6 offer over RAID 5?

RAID 6 offers increased redundancy through the use of double parity, which is its key advantage over RAID 5. While RAID 5 utilizes single parity for data protection, RAID 6 adds an additional layer of security by storing two parity blocks for each data segment. This means that RAID 6 can tolerate the failure of two drives simultaneously without data loss, making it particularly suitable for environments where data integrity is critical.

In contrast, RAID 5 can only withstand a single drive failure. This increased level of redundancy is essential for systems that require high availability and cannot afford downtime, as it significantly reduces the risk of data loss during drive failures. The added protection makes RAID 6 a more robust choice for applications involving critical data storage, even though it may introduce some complexity and overhead in terms of performance during write operations compared to RAID 5.