The Storage Area Network provides a common link between multiple servers and storage, allowing administrators to scale only the storage or sever processing power as requirements demand. This also allows multiple servers to access the same data so that duplication of information can be reduced, and facilitates storage back-up directly over the storage channels without adding the bottleneck of the relatively slow Local Area Network (LAN).
Fibre Channel technology is providing numerous advantages which make the Storage Area Network possible. Cable distances can span from 30 meters per link using copper cabling, to 10Km per link using single-mode fibre optics. A Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop can support 126 devices and a Fibre Channel Switched Fabric up to 16 million. Parallel SCSI technology supports only 15 devices and up to 12 total meters parallel cable. In addition Fibre Channel was designed from the start to support multi-host environments, and recent enhancements are allowing integrators to build dynamic environments which allow hot insertion of both storage devices and hosts.
The move to Storage Area Networks over the next few years will provide a new level of scalability to system administrators allowing a much greater degree of freedom than the traditional attached storage paradigm. Fibre Channel technology provides the basic foundation of this shift, allowing enterprises to start implementing a solid foundation today to support the environments of the future.
Why Implement a SAN?
Add servers and storage independently
Facilitates shared on-line spares and remote back-up or mirroring
Reduces down-time requirements
Reconfigure Storage and Servers on the fly
Provides multiple server to storage paths
Condo Protego offer a range of Storage Area Network Solutions ensuring full interoperability and expansion options, to ensure that a customer is never tied in to a proprietary environment without room to grow.