Which disk array is considered a massive array of idle disks?

The chosen answer is accurate because MAID, which stands for Massive Arrays of Idle Disks, specifically refers to a storage architecture designed to conserve energy and reduce costs by allowing most of the disks to remain idle while only a subset of them is active at any given time. This design is particularly useful for applications that require large amounts of storage but do not need all the data to be accessed continuously, such as archiving and backup solutions.

The MAID architecture effectively manages disk power consumption by spinning down inactive disks, thus optimizing energy usage and extending the lifespan of the disks. This characteristic of primarily keeping most disks idle while ensuring access to the data when needed is what specifically differentiates MAID from other types of disk arrays.

Other options, while they may refer to disk configurations, do not align with the concept of an array primarily consisting of idle disks. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), for instance, focuses on performance improvement and redundancy rather than idleness. JBOD refers to a collection of disks that do not have a specific configuration for redundancy or performance, while SBOD appears to be a less common or recognized term in the context of disk arrays, and there is no widely accepted technology that matches that description.