DAS / NAS / SAN In the days of mainframes, data was stored physically separate from the actual processing

unit, but was still only accessible through the processing units. As PC based servers became more commonplace, storage devices went 'inside the box' or in external boxes that were connected directly to the system. Each of these approaches was valid in its time, but as our need to store increasing volumes of data and our need to ma e it more accessible grew, other alternatives were needed. Enter networ storage. !etwor storage is a generic term used to describe networ based data storage, but there are many technologies within it which all go to ma e the magic happen. Direct Attached Storage (DAS) "irect attached storage is the term used to describe a storage device that is directly attached to a host system. #he simplest example of "A$ is the internal hard drive of a server computer, though storage devices housed in an external box come under this banner as well. "A$ is still, by far, the most common method of storing data for computer systems. Network Attached Storage (NAS) !etwor Attached $torage, or !A$, is a data storage mechanism that uses special devices connected directly to the networ media. #hese devices are assigned an IP address and can then be accessed by clients via a server that acts as a gateway to the data, or in some cases allows the device to be accessed directly by the clients without an intermediary. #he beauty of the !A$ structure is that it means that in an environment with many servers running different operating systems, storage of data can be centrali%ed, as can the security, management, and bac up of the data. An increasing number of companies already ma e use of !A$ technology, if only with devices such as C"& '() towers *stand&alone boxes that contain multiple C"&'() drives+ that are connected directly to the networ . $ome of the big advantages of !A$ include the expandability, need more storage space, add another !A$ device and expand the available storage. !A$ also bring an extra level of fault tolerance to the networ . In a "A$ environment, a server going down means that the data that that server holds is no longer available. -ith !A$, the data is still available on the networ and accessible by clients. .ault tolerant measures such as 'AI", which we'll discuss later+, can be used to ma e sure that the !A$ device does not become a point of failure. Storage Area Network (SAN) A $A! is a networ of storage devices that are connected to each other and to a server, or cluster of servers, which act as an access point to the $A!. In some configurations a $A! is also connected to the networ . $A!'s use special switches as a mechanism to connect the devices. #hese switches, which loo a lot li e a normal Ethernet networ ing switch, act as the connectivity point for $A!'s. )a ing it possible for devices to communicate with each other on a separate networ brings with it many advantages. Consider, for instance, the ability to bac up every piece of data on your networ without having to 'pollute' the standard networ infrastructure with gigabytes of data. #his is /ust one of the advantages of a $A! which is ma ing it

a popular choice with companies today, and is a reason why it is forecast to become the data storage technology of choice in the coming years. According to research company I"C, $A!'s will account for 012 of all networ storage by 3114. Irrespective of whether the networ storage mechanism is "A$, !A$ or $A!, there are certain technologies that you'll find in almost every case. #he technologies that we are referring to are things li e $C$I and 'AI". .or years $C$I has been providing a high speed, reliable method for data storage. (ver the years, $C$I has evolved through many standards to the point where it is now the storage technology of choice. 'elated, but not reliant on $C$I, is 'AI". 'AI" *'edundant Array of Independent "is s+ is a series of standards which provide improved performance and5or fault tolerance for dis failures. $uch protection is necessary as dis s account for 612 of all hardware device failures on server systems. 7i e $C$I, 'AI", or the technologies used to implement it, have evolved, developed and matured over the years. In addition to these mainstays of storage technology, other technologies feature in our networ storage picture. (ne of the most significant of these technologies is .ibre channel. .ibre Channel is a technology used to interconnect storage devices allowing them to communicate at very high speeds *up to 819bps in future implementations+. As well as being faster than more traditional storage technologies li e $C$I, .ibre Channel also allows for devices to be connected over a much greater distance. In fact, .ibre Channel can be used up to six miles. #his allows devices in a $A! to be placed in the most appropriate physical location. (ther developments are coming through that will change the way that we use and access networ storage. (ne of these advances pegged to ma e a large contribution to the growing success of networ storage in general is i$C$I. i$C$I is a technology that allows data to be transported to and from storage devices over an IP networ . -hat it actually does is seriali%e the data from a $C$I connection. :sing i$C$I, the concept of networ storage can be ta en anywhere that IP can go, which as the Internet proves, is basically anywhere. #echnologies li e .ibre Channel and i$C$I are a big factor in how fast people are able to afford and implement networ storage solutions. In very basic terms, a $A! can be anything from two servers on a networ accessing a central pool of storage devices to several thousand servers accessing many millions of megabytes of storage. Conceptually, a $A! can be thought of as a separate networ of storage devices physically removed from, but still connected to, the networ . $A!s evolved from the concept of ta ing storage devices, and therefore storage traffic, off the 7A! and creating a separate bac &end networ designed specifically for data. $A!s represent the evolution of data storage technology to this point. #raditionally, on client server systems, data was stored on devices either inside or directly attached to the server. !ext in the evolutionary scale came !etwor Attached $torage *!A$+ which too the storage devices away from the server and connected them directly to the networ . $A!s ta e the principle one step further by allowing storage devices to exist on their own separate networ and communicate directly with each other over very fast media. :sers can gain access to these storage devices through server systems which are connected to both the 7A! and the $A!.

#his is in contrast to the use of a traditional 7A! for providing a connection for server&storage, a strategy that limits overall networ bandwidth. $A!s address the bandwidth bottlenec s associated with 7A! based server storage and the scalability limitations found with $C$I bus based implementations. $A!s provide modular scalability, high&availability, increased fault tolerance and centrali%ed storage management. #hese advantages have led to an increase in the popularity of $A!s as they are ;uite simply better suited to address the data storage needs of today's data intensive networ environments. #he advantages of $A!s are numerous, but perhaps one of the best examples is that of the serverless bac up *also commonly referred to as <rd Party Copying+. #his system allows a dis storage device to copy data directly to a bac up device across the high&speed lin s of the $A! without any intervention from a server. "ata is ept on the $A!, which means the transfer does not pollute the 7A!, and the server processing resources are still available to client systems. $A!s are most commonly implemented using a technology called .ibre channel. .ibre Channel is a set of communication standards developed by the American !ational $tandards Institute *A!$I+. #hese standards define a high&performance data communications technology that supports very fast data rates *over 39bps+. .ibre channel can be used in a point&to&point configuration between two devices, in a 'ring' type model nown as an arbitrated loop, and in a fabric model. "evices on the $A! are normally connected together through a special ind of switch, called a .ibre Channel switch, which performs basically the same function as a switch on an Ethernet networ , in that it acts as a connectivity point for the devices. =ecause .ibre channel is a switched technology, it is able to provide a dedicated path between the devices in the fabric so that they can utili%e the entire bandwidth for the duration of the communication. #he storage devices are connected to .ibre Channel switch using either multimode or single mode fiber optic cable. )ultimode for short distances *up to 3 ilometers+, single mode for longer. In the storage devices themselves, special fiber channel interfaces provide the connectivity points. #hese interfaces can ta e the form of built in adapters, which are commonly found in storage subsystems designed for $A!s, or can be interface cards much li e a networ card, which are installed into server systems.