And what are the advantages of it?
SAN stands for Storage Area Network. Perhaps the easiest way to think about what a SAN is to think of it as the universal connector of a wide variety of data storage systems. SANS are able to bring together a variety of storage devices and the computers that they communicate with. The benefits of the SAN lie within its ability to communicate and connect between storage and computers.
A SAN includes both software and hardware and is used on a dedicated network that is set apart from LANs and WANs. A SAN consists of switches connected to the network, most often the Fibre Channel.
SANS are most often used in enterprise situations. Enterprise is a blanket term that often covers corporations, nonprofits and governments, but for the most part, enterprise refers to larger organizations. SANs are a go to option for larger companies because they are easy to scale and add storage capacity to when needed.
The great thing about SAN is the ability to integrate and communicate with a number of different storage devices. Especially for companies with a long history, who may have been archiving their data on tapes or CD-ROMs, they are able to use a SAN and have access to all of that data in addition to newer data that is stored on hard disks.
SANs provide for a variety of servers to share storage, which appears to be directly attached to the storage. SANs storage typically is made up for several large disks. Typically SANs are used for the most critical information that a company deals with. Backup SAN and restore features, along with archiving and retrieval of archived data are some of the main functions of SAN systems.
SANS have been on the rise since the early 2000s and now the technology is allowing for storage vendors to provide the storing and managing of data for companies. Where before, storing information, archiving and backing up data was something a company’s IT department was in charge of. Now, SANs backup and storage services are available making data storage even easier for companies.
The advantages SAN are increased storage space, higher speeds of data sharing and more freed up network bandwidth. In addition, SAN systems allow for certain data to be separated from the rest of the system so you can not only expand the amount of storage, but you can control access.
With Nexsan’s unique data storage solutions, we offer SAN products that cannot only reduce your cost of storage by as much as 50 percent, our products are also known to cut energy costs by up to 60 percent. Our backup SAN products allow you to manage your tiered storage without disrupting your systems and it’s easy to scale.
Call or email us today to learn more about our SAN offerings.
