What about D2D with iSCSI SANs?
What about D2D with iSCSI SANs? Anybody, even those with FC SANs, can use iSCSI SANs for D2D backup with low cost ATA RAID/SCSI JBOD. Software backup vendors allow D2D with out additional costly software pieces such as SSO for shareable FC tape devices.

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You are correct in everything you mention here but I don't understand the question though.

If you are eluding to the fact that iSCSI is a great low cost solution for connecting servers to disk over IP networks, then I agree 100%. Using iSCSI as the connection to lower cost ATA disks as "disk class" backup media to archive data is a great way to reduce backup time and speed up restore times, all without having to buy a single Fibre Channel switch or host bus adapter.

For those of you who would like clarification on the acronyms used here:

- D2D = disk-to-disk
- ATA = advanced technology attachment -- lower cost drives than Fibre or SCSI drives.
- iSCSI = Internet small computer system interface -- a way of using IP networks to connect to SCSI disks.
- SAN = Storage area network
- RAID = redundant array of independent disks -- "independent" is now used instead of "inexpensive" disks.
- FC = Fibre Channel -- underlying protocol used by SAN to connect to storage devices.
- JBOD = Just a bunch of disks -- no really, it does mean that! Normally refers to disks NOT configured as a RAID set.

Chris

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This was first published in March 2003