What is the primary benefit of RAID 60 over RAID 50?

The primary benefit of RAID 60 over RAID 50 is enhanced redundancy with double parity. RAID 60 is essentially a combination of RAID 6 (which uses double parity for greater fault tolerance) and RAID 0 (which provides striping to improve performance). By utilizing double parity, RAID 60 can withstand the failure of two disks in a RAID group, providing a higher level of data protection compared to RAID 50, which only offers single parity protection. This makes RAID 60 particularly advantageous for environments where data reliability is critical, as it allows for improved fault tolerance and reduced risk of data loss.

While higher write performance, cost of implementation, and faster read speeds are advantages typically associated with RAID configurations, they do not capture the principal enhancement that RAID 60 brings in terms of data protection and redundancy. RAID 50 can offer better performance and lower costs under certain conditions, but RAID 60’s primary strength lies in its ability to provide enhanced redundancy through double parity.