Article

LAN-free backup vs. server-free backup in a SAN: Part 5

John Merryman
Table of Contents

1.

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Introduction
2. Industry standards review
3. Architectural considerations
4. Server-free implementation considerations
5. Conclusion



Conclusion:
Storage area networks provide a new landscape for data management in the enterprise. While the basic foundation of fabric, protocols, standards, and devices already exists, industry standards (ANSI T10 in this case) and the industry adoption of these standards should predicate the implementation of server-free data movement methodologies. Although server-free data movement offers promising performance advantages over LAN-free implementations, this technology remains to be proven in a heterogeneous enterprise data center environment. LAN-free backup implementations will provide a practical stepping-stone for future server-free implementations, without introducing non-standards based technologies.

To sum it up, Crossroads Systems, a hardware manufacturer specializing in Extended Copy data mover technologies, currently recommends "The customer should have already adopted SAN technology, and be using it for LAN-free backup," before adopting server-free backup technology. [Reference 3]

About the author: John Merryman is an independent consultant, specializing in storage technology analysis/planning/management and disaster recovery/business continuity planning. merryman_john@hotmail.com

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