For years, the business advantages of SANs (Storage Area Networks) have been well-known to Global 2000 organizations. SANs have allowed large companies to
Improve application performance and availability.
Reduce hardware and management costs.
Increase overall storage capacity.
Unfortunately, high component prices have kept these benefits well out of reach for most small to medium businesses.
Now SANs are for everyone!
QLogic entry-level SAN switch and Adapter products let companies of ALL sizes enjoy the power and profitability of a SAN.
The Basics: What is a SAN?
A SAN is a network for sharing high-performance storage hardware such as RAID and tape libraries across multiple servers and workstations.
In previous "local-attached" scenarios, storage was tied to individual servers, either because it was onboard the server itself, or because it was cabled exclusively to that server via a 1:1 SCSI or Fibre Channel connection. Local-attached deployments, still in use within many smaller IT organizations, can have costly impacts, including storage isolation, poor storage utilization, and reduced LAN and/or application performance. All these impacts may be avoided by the implementation of a simple Storage Area Network (SAN).
What will a SAN do for your company?
Storage networks (SANs) represent more than a technology choice. They are a strategic business direction that will help you save money and out-plan your competition by gaining control over the IT variables that matter most.
- Control costs – No more buying servers when all you really need is disk space! SANs separate "storage capacity" from "processing power," allowing you to scale each independently at exactly the right time.
- Control resource utilization - Centralized storage "pools" maximize the return on every disk and tape investment, giving you more value from what you already own.
- Control availability – Eliminate downtime for critical applications such as email. Flexible SAN topologies provide as much resilience as you need.
- Control everything…globally, automatically - Why configure storage on a server-by-server basis? SANs allow you to allocate and monitor all resources centrally, making it easy to automate daily tasks such as backup.
Sounds great! What do I need to get started?
SANs typically include the following components:
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Fibre Channel host bus adapters (Adapters) – You’ll need one for every server you plan to attach to the SAN. Similar to Ethernet NICs, Adapters let your servers speak Fibre Channel, the protocol of choice for networked storage. |
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Fibre Channel switch – If it’s a QLogic switch, simply plug in your storage and adapter-equipped servers. Configuration wizards handle the rest. |
Fibre Channel cables and SFPs – Optical media offers state-of-the-art transmission rates and distance spans up to 10 km. QLogic offers the widest range of supported optics, enabling you to deploy the models that match your needs and budget.
Fibre Channel-enabled storage - New low-cost RAIDs and tape drives are now available from leading QLogic partners, such as EMC, IBM, HP and Sun.
To get started creating new value with your existing infrastructure, contact your nearest authorized QLogic reseller. |