Understand Storage Area Network

What is a Storage Area Network?

Storage Area Network (often called SAN) is a separate, independent network of high-speed storage devices.

A storage area network device is a dedicated system that contains disks for storing information. This is unlike a typical computer which has been designed to carry out a number of different functions. As a result, a storage area network enables the servers within a network to be used for running applications and processing data, not for storing large amounts of information.

A storage area network system is therefore more powerful as the servers do not need to be used to search and provide information to the users, and the capacity of servers does not need to be increased when further storage is required.

A SAN is designed in such a way that the information stored on it can be accessed by all servers via the Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN). This means that all users can access information extremely easily.

Storage area networks typically use a fibre channel, which is a high speed method that storage devices uses to communicate with each other. As a result, storing and retrieving information is extremely fast.

In summary, a storage area network is a completely independent storage system from a company’s servers, making the storage generally available across a network.  This network of high-speed storage devices are sold by many of the world’s leading vendors including: Brocade, Cisco, IBM, Symantec, NetApp, Dell, HP, Equallogic and EMC.

The Future of Storage Area Network?

Storage area networks were developed in order to overcome some of the problems associated with network attached storage (NAS). This is because NAS devices are sometimes difficult to manage and do not have the same storage capacity. An issue with network attached storage is that because of their design, and because of the way in which information is passed across a network, the network can be slow due to the increased amount of traffic that is created by the NAS.

As a result many analysts forecast that storage area networks will become predominant in the storage market.

That said, the whole area of storage is complex and the systems available will very much rely upon your organisations’ needs, plans for growth and, ultimately, budget.

Glossary

Local Area Network

A local area network (LAN) is the technology that allows a group of computers to communicate or share information across a small area.

Wide Area Network

A wide area network (WAN) is the technology that allows computers to communicate across regions, counties and across the world. A WAN is formed by linking several LANs together. The most commonly used WAN is the internet.

Fibre Channel

Fibre channel is a high speed, highly reliable method of communication that allows storage, servers and other devices, to exchange data with each other extremely quickly.