Packet Broadband Network Handbook
Providing all of the relevant details on enabling technologies, this easy-to-navigate resource will give you all the context you need to put them in perspective and make well-informed choices.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Packet Broadband Network Handbook
Chapter 20: Storage Area Networks
20.1 Introduction
Storage area networks are among the primary applications of packet broadband networks. A SAN itself is a high-speed special-purpose network that interconnects different kinds of data storage devices to provide data storage service to networked users. Typically, a storage area network is part of an overall communications network for an enterprise. A strong push is underway to extend the SAN solution beyond LANs to remote locations for backup and archival storage, using wide-area network carrier technologies such as ATM or SONET.
The typical operations SANs support include disk mirroring, backup and restore, archival and retrieval of archived data, data migration from one storage device to another, and the sharing of data among different servers in a network.
20.1.1 Evolution of Storage Solutions
Data storage solutions have evolved along with computer networking technologies, with three distinct phases of development (Khattar 1999):
Server-attached storage. Server-based data storage was the first generation storage solution in the early 1970s to 1980s. The storage was part of a general-purpose computer server. Data access was specific to the computing platform, operating system, file system, and database system being used.
Network-attached storage. Network-based storage was the second-generation data storage solution to be developed. It involves a dedicated file server on the network serving all the workstations and hosts connected to the network. The dedicated file server communicates with other hosts via a LAN-specific protocol such as Ethernet. The network-wide disk storage has a logical partitioning to accommodate different applications and purposes.
Copyright The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2003 under license agreement with Books24x7
