What is a disk enclosure?

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A disk enclosure is a hardware chassis designed to hold multiple hard drives or SSDs and provide the necessary power, cooling, and data connectivity for them. It groups drives into a single unit that you can connect to a storage controller or server via a backplane, often supporting hot-swappable drives and standardized interfaces like SAS or SATA. This physical housing is what separates the drives from a mere software pool or from networking equipment or backup devices—the enclosure delivers the power and cooling and the physical paths the drives need to function together as part of a storage array.