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Published: 19 Oct 2012
Storage managers reveal details on tape reliability

This article is part of the Vol. 3 No. 12 February 2005 issue of Storage managers reveal details on tape reliability

Common SAN designs There are many possible design possibilities when creating a storage area network (SAN). Josh Judd, author of Multiprotocol Routing for SANs, identifies the most common SAN design options. Storage area networks (SANs) remain complicated beasts. Despite vendors' efforts to simplify SAN implementation and management, they remain difficult to build, maintain and manage. Surprisingly, there are only a couple of SAN design tools that help storage administrators to design and update a SAN over time. The need for SAN design automation is clear. "As soon as you go beyond a SAN that is small--maybe one switch and a few devices--you can't design it with paper and pencil, a spreadsheet or a whiteboard," says Bill North, director of research, storage software at International Data Corp. (IDC). "Everything just breaks down." For most organizations, expanding a SAN is a trial-and-error process. SAN design projects rarely start with a blank slate; instead they expand or consolidate storage that's in place. Storage managers need to decide what works with ... Access >>>

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