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Published: 16 Oct 2012
Are your data storage costs too high?

This article is part of the Vol. 1 No. 10 December 2002 issue of Are your data storage costs too high?

The host bus adapter (HBA) is the Rodney Dangerfield of the storage area network (SAN). It gets no respect. An often unconsidered part in the deployment and adoption of enterprise SANs is the ubiquitous Fibre Channel (FC) HBA found in servers and storage arrays alike. But buyers beware: All HBAs aren't alike, and they are starting to incorporate some pretty sophisticated technology and features. SAN connectivity While SAN deployments today are frequently associated with fiber optic, the Fibre Channel (FC) specifications don't require fiber optic cabling. All HBA vendors support and provide copper connector kits that generally cost up to $200 less than their fiber optic HBA counterparts. While copper connectivity may seem like a small detail, it permits an organization that lacks the finances or personnel with fiber cabling expertise to enter the SAN space. While copper is a robust solution, a copper deployment does have its limitations. First, copper has a 100MB/s limitation and there doesn't appear to be a current upgrade path for this technology. Second, ... Access >>>

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