by What is a SAN?
A storage area network, commonly known as a SAN, is a dedicated high-speed network that interconnects and presents shared pools of block level storage to servers. The SAN allows servers on the network to access storage devices and behave as if the devices were locally attached to the individual servers.
SAN Architecture and Components
A basic Storage Area Network (SAN) Consists of four main components: servers, storage devices, SAN switches, and connections. Servers connect to storage devices through the SAN with high-speed fiber channel or Ethernet cables. SAN switches route traffic between servers and storage devices to allow sharing of storage. Connections between components are dedicated short-distance cables to achieve low latency and high throughput.
SAN switches form the core of a SAN and allow servers to simultaneously access and share blocks of data on storage devices through virtualization. This virtualization means multiple servers can access the same disk blocks on a storage volume without disturbing each other. The switches route packets of data between nodes and apply quality of service features like congestion management. They enable a single pool of storage to function as multiple logical units that servers access independently.
Types of Storage Devices in a Storage Area Network (SAN)
A SAN can connect to various types of networked storage devices to provide block storage to servers. Popular options include:
– Disk arrays: Arrays of hard disk drives or solid-state drives configured with redundancy for high availability. Offer the highest total capacity at moderate cost per gigabyte.
– Tape libraries: Robotic libraries of tape cartridges for long term data archival and backup. More economical than disk for infrequent access of large amounts of cold data.
– Network-attached storage (NAS): File server appliances that serve files using file-level protocols like NFS or SMB. Can also be used in a block-addressed mode to integrate into a SAN.
– Object storage: Scalable storage systems optimized for unstructured data like video, images and backup files retrievable by content address. Lower cost than disk for large semi-static archives.
SAN provides the high-speed connectivity and virtualization capabilities that allow flexible use of different types of networked storage devices based on application needs and budgets.
Key Benefits of SAN Technology
There are several important benefits that explain the growing adoption of SANs in enterprise data centers and cloud infrastructures:
Centralized Storage Management
With all storage pooled into a single resource, SANs simplify management through centralized provisioning, monitoring, and maintenance of storage. Administrators have consolidated views of utilization and performance.
Scalability and Flexibility
Additional servers and storage may be non-disruptively added to the SAN fabric as demands grow. Resources virtualized through switch tiers can dynamically migrate and expand across physical devices.
Increased Utilization
Thin provisioning and data services like replication and snapshots allow more efficient use of costly storage resources. Underutilized servers no longer constrain expansion.
High Performance
Dedicated switched fabric connectivity and optimized protocols deliver low latency and high IOPS/throughput for mission-critical databases and virtual desktop infrastructures.
Business Continuity
Data services integrate seamlessly with backup applications for file/database-level protection. Remote replication ensures prompt disaster recovery.
Total Cost of Ownership
While upfront SAN deployment requires investment, well-architected infrastructures lower operations expenses through centralized administration and increased storage utilization over DAS architectures.
Evolving Role of the Storage Area Network (SAN)
As IT services continue shifting to software-defined and cloud-native environments, the role of the SAN is evolving beyond plain block storage connectivity. Emerging technologies are integrating SANs more tightly with compute and management layers:
– Hyperconverged infrastructure appliances combine SAN, servers and virtualization into software-defined stacks for private cloud.
– Cloud orchestration tools present SAN pools as software-defined storage to container platforms and serverless functions.
– Composable infrastructure disaggregates and pools hardware resources for elastic allocation to workloads on demand.
– Edge computing architectures deploy mini-SANs and all-flash arrays at network endpoints for local data processing and low latency apps.
In the future, SANs integrating ever tighter with hypervisors, container platforms and orchestration control planes will deliver automated infrastructure for diverse modern applications across public, private and edge clouds. As data volumes continue ballooning, the flexibility and economics of shared block storage networks will remain invaluable to enterprise IT.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it.
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