| Reaping Value from Storage Networks -
As an enabling platform, networked storage drives both cost and control of the overall storage infrastructure. -
In industries where storage availability and protection drive revenue-generating businesses, the networked storage budget grows as a function of the overall operating budget. -
To harness these costs, companies must apporach network storage with defensive and offensive approaches. 5.1 Balancing Offensive and Defensive Strategies -
Over the last several years , defensive strategies focused on data availability and protection-dominated storage deployments. -
Even in tight economic times, budgets existed for business continuity and disaster recovery applications. -
These deployments focus only on risk mitigation as opposed to including operational agility. -
Offensive strategies go beyond protection mechanisms to those focused on longer- term strategic storage deployment and TCO. -
Underlying SAN infrastructure enables defensive and offensive approaches. 5.2 Primary Defensive Strategies -
SANs provide redundancy for higher uptime and availability. -
SAN switches and directors include high-availability features for fabric resiliency. -
Core Fibre Channel directors or Gigabit Ethernet switches deliver scalable fabrics . -
SANs enable remote storage options for added protection and availability. -
Defensive strategies go beyond data risk to risks of dealing with human capital and trained storage professionals. -
SANs help reduce storage management costs by accomplishing more with less and reducing the number of administrators. 5.3 Primary Offensive Strategies -
Offensive strategies look beyond basic functions to exploiting competitive advantages. -
Merging of storage with networking fosters a new storage distribution mechanism. -
Offensive thinking harnesses methods to take advantage of the new IP distribution network. -
SANs provide for rapid addition of new storage capacity to meet unforeseen demand. -
SANs equalize the storage device playing field, providing more customer control of storage device choices. -
IP networks have served corporate LAN, MAN, WAN, and NAS applications for years and can now also apply to IP storage networks. -
Network consolidation on IP centralizes on a common technology resource. -
IP provides benefits of familiar and ubiquitous technology, enhanced functionality, and scalability in size, speed, and distance. -
Platform consolidation further supports long-term cost advantages. -
Introduction of an IP storage fabric for Fibre Channel and iSCSI uses common networking components . -
IS-NICs in servers allow for block-based and file-based storage access protocols from single interfaces to an IP storage fabric. -
IP storage networks can be integrated with corporate networks or kept separate via physical or logical segmentation. -
Multilayered storage fabrics provide for all end devices while maximizing use of the IP core. -
With an IP storage fabric, IP cores can be deployed across FC, iSCSI, and NAS platforms. 5.4 Measuring Returns -
Cost savings come from capital and operational expense reductions. -
Added revenue comes from new opportunities enabled by new technology. -
SANs lower capital costs by extending storage life, networking resources to require less hardware, and leaving room for servers to grow. -
SANs lower operational costs through storage management savings, reducing maintenance costs, and allowing administrators to do more with less. -
SANs reduce downtime through defensive strategies such as data availability and protection. -
SANs increase operational agility through flexible, scalable architectures. -
Successful IT groups will tie technology investments to business unit priorities. -
CEO oversight between IT groups and business units assures both strategic and operational links. -
With the hundred billion-dollar storage and networking markets converging, IP storage networking presents opportunities to develop sustainable competitive advantage. |