Data Growing Endlessly?
A storage area networks (SAN) is usually a storage device (for example disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes) to servers therefore the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system. A SAN typically possesses its own network of storage devices which are generally not accessible through the regular network by regular devices. The cost and complexity of SANs dropped in the late 2000s, allowing wider adoption across both enterprise and small to medium sized business environments.

A storage area networks (SAN) is a high-speed special-purpose network (or subnetwork) that interconnects different varieties of data storage devices with associated data servers on behalf of a larger network of users. Typically, a storage area network is part of the overall network of computing helpful information on an enterprise.

Sharing storage usually simplifies storage administration and adds flexibility since cables and storage devices do not have to be physically moved to shift storage from one server to a different.

Other benefits include the ability to allow servers to boot from the SAN itself. This allows for a fast and simple replacing faulty servers since the SAN could be reconfigured so that a replacement server may use the LUN from the faulty server.This technique may take less than half an hour and it is a relatively new idea being pioneered in newer data centers. There are numerous of emerging products designed to facilitate and speed this up still further. Although this area of technology is still new many notice being the future of the enterprise datacenter.

SANs also tend to enable more effective disaster recovery processes. A SAN could span a distant location containing a secondary storage array. This allows storage replication either implemented by disk array controllers, by server software, or by specialized SAN devices. Since IP WANs are usually the least costly technique of long-distance transport, the Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and iSCSI protocols have been developed to permit SAN extension over IP networks.

The traditional physical SCSI layer could only support a few meters of distance - not nearly enough to make sure business continuance in a disaster.The economical consolidation of disk arrays has accelerated the advancement of several features including I/O caching, snapshotting, and volume cloning (Business Continuance Volumes or BCVs).

Sharing storage usually simplifies storage administration and adds flexibility since cables and storage devices do not have to be physically moved to shift storage from one server to another.Other benefits range from the capability allow servers to boot from your SAN itself.

This allows for the fast and simple replacement of faulty servers since the SAN could be reconfigured so that an alternative server can use the LUN from the faulty server. This technique can take less than 30 minutes and is a comparatively new idea being pioneered in newer data centers. There are a number of emerging products designed to facilitate and speed this up even more. While this part of technology continues to be new many notice being the future of the enterprise datacenter.

SANs also tend to enable far better disaster recovery processes. A SAN could span a distant location containing a second storage array. This enables storage replication either implemented by disk array controllers, by server software, or by specialized SAN devices. Since IP WANs will often be the very least costly approach to long-distance transport, the Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and iSCSI protocols happen to be developed to allow SAN extension over IP networks.

The standard physical SCSI layer could only support a few meters of distance - not nearly enough to ensure business continuance in a disaster.The economical consolidation of disk arrays has accelerated the advancement of countless features including I/O caching, snapshotting, and volume cloning (Business Continuance Volumes or BCVs).