Database, video/images and messaging applications are critical to successful enterprise operations. System downtime, unavailable data, or hindered processes affect a company's success. To support increasingly complex and distributed environments, many organisations are challenged with managing a growing proliferation of servers and dispersed data storage. ControlCircle’s SAN solutions simplify management, increase availability, heighten productivity and reduce costs in collaborative environments.
What is SAN?
Storage area network (SAN) is a network (often referred to as a fabric) designed to attach computer storage devices such as disk array controllers to servers. A SAN allows a machine to connect to remote targets such as disks and tape drives on a network for block level I/O. From the point of view of the class drivers and application software, the devices appear as locally attached devices.
The two variants of SANs are:
- A network with the essential purpose of transferring data between computer systems and storage elements. A SAN consists of a communication infrastructure, which provides physical connections and a management layer, which organises the connections, storage elements and computer systems so that data transfer is secure and robust. The term SAN is usually identified with block I/O services rather than file access services.
- A storage system consisting of storage elements, storage devices, computer systems, and/or appliances, plus all control software, communicating over an Ethernet network.
Storage networks are distinguished from other forms of network storage by the low-level access method that they use. Data traffic on the SAN fabric is very similar to those used for internal disk drives, like ATA and SCSI.
The Solution
ControlCircle have invested in NetApp technology for our own SANs and have these located in 8 Tier 3/4 datacentres globally. Clients can take 1GB on a dedicated LUN on a dedicated aggregate up to petabytes of available storage on fibre or SATA disks. The choice between fibre and SATA depends on performance requirements. Connections are either ISCSI or fibre connections from HBAs in the servers to Brocade fibre switches.
SAN and NAS should be viewed as complementary rather than competing technologies and in many cases, businesses would benefit from both. Both SAN & NAS should be part of your storage network. NetApp fulfils requirements for the multiprotocol environment in one box where as other vendors may require different hardware for NAS and SAN.
To talk to a Storage Architect please call 0800 107 6769 or email storage@ControlCircle.com.