Since I started following storage research I've noticed an interesting fact: independent reviews find that vendor MTBF numbers are almost always too optimistic. Examples:
This isn't as bad as the cigarette industry lying about smoking and cancer for decades, but informed consumers have to wonder why vendors don't come clean. Greed? Ignorance? Sloth? Fear? Or something else?
What's going on? Several issues lead to vendor misinformation:
Why should you care? The problem with all these statistics is that they are almost meaningless to most users. Why? Because you aren't buying hundreds or thousands of units.
You just buy 1 or a handful. If they work, you're happy. If they don't, you aren't.
The fact that 2,000 other people are thrilled means nothing to YOU when your new SSD goes belly up. Your failure rate is 100% and your MTBF is 2 days.
In mature markets, like disk drives, most vendors are similar because they have to be: OEM buyers know the real numbers and rate vendors accordingly. In new markets, like SSDs, the numbers are all over the map and no one's talking.
A more reliable device improves your chances of a happy long-term relationship - but doesn't guarantee it. Your mileage will vary.
The Storage Bits take Losing a server to power fry or fan melt isn't the end of the world. Losing your data is a lot worse.
Storage vendor MTBFs and MTTDL (mean time to data loss) numbers are meaningless for small installations. Nor will any storage vendor compensate you for the value of lost data. That's how much they trust their numbers.
When it comes to your data put your faith elsewhere. As the redoubtable David S. H. Rosenthal - former Sun Distinguished Engineer and employee #4 at Nvidia puts it, only 3 things will improve your data protection chances:
Remember, the the Universe hates your data. Be safe out there.
Comments welcome, of course.