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SAN technology and arrays
secondary storage
Secondary storage is storage for noncritical data that does not need to be frequently accessed. Continue Reading
RAID 0 (disk striping)
RAID 0 (disk striping) is the process of dividing a body of data into blocks and spreading the data blocks across multiple storage devices, such as hard disks or solid-state drives (SSDs), in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) group. Continue Reading
NVMe over FC is happening, and it's time to prepare
The extent to which the recently published FC-NVMe standard lowers performance latencies in Fibre Channel SANs will be interesting to watch in the coming months. Continue Reading
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What is a LUN and why do we need one?
Logical unit numbers are a logical abstraction between a physical disk device and applications. Learn more about LUN use cases and LUN security features. Continue Reading
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel is a high-speed networking technology primarily used for transmitting data among data centers, computer servers, switches and storage at data rates of up to 128 Gbps. Continue Reading
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Definitions to Get Started
View All Definitions SSD (solid-state drive)
An SSD (solid-state drive) is a type of nonvolatile storage media that stores persistent data on solid-state flash memory.Continue Reading
storage virtualization
Storage virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device -- or pool of available storage capacity -- that is managed from a central console.Continue Reading
gigabyte
A gigabyte -- pronounced with two hard Gs -- is a unit of data storage capacity that is roughly equivalent to 1 billion bytes.Continue Reading
Storage Spaces Direct requirements you need to know about
Microsoft's architecture uses commodity hardware to create highly available, software-defined storage. But success depends on following the vendor's rules and recommendations.Continue Reading
RAID 5
RAID 5 is a redundant array of independent disks configuration that uses disk striping with parity.Continue Reading
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hard disk
A hard disk is part of a unit -- often called a disk drive, hard drive or hard disk drive -- that stores and provides relatively quick access to large amounts of data on an electromagnetically charged surface or set of surfaces.Continue Reading
RAID 10 (RAID 1+0)
RAID 10, also known as RAID 1+0, is a RAID configuration that combines disk mirroring and disk striping to protect data.Continue Reading
storage medium (storage media)
In computers, a storage medium is any technology -- including devices and materials -- used to place, keep and retrieve electronic data.Continue Reading
bad block
A bad block is an area of storage media that is no longer reliable for storing and retrieving data because it has been physically damaged or corrupted.Continue Reading
storage area network (SAN)
A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated high-speed network or subnetwork that interconnects and presents shared pools of storage devices to multiple servers.Continue Reading