SAN Appliances: Enabling Media Rich Internet Storage Networks - Technology Information

Computer Technology Review, August, 2000 by Robert Woolery

A high availability SAN appliance not only provides transparent data protection and fault resiliency but also business continuance technology enabling simple and efficient backup, restore, and archive along with disaster recovery, remote data replication, and application and data failover (Fig 3).

While this SAN device appears revolutionary by today's standards, in a few years, an intelligent SAN appliance infrastructure device--designed to provide high bandwidth and scalable access to shared data in a distributed computing Storage Area Network--can move to a standardized solution for a wide range of media-rich applications, as well as other e-business applications. In fact, one SAN appliance that is available today is optimized for the high bandwidth requirements of the Internet, easily configured for "core-edge" networks to pro-vide shared access to large volumes of distributed data.

This SAN appliance strategy offers business a better way to deploy media-rich infrastructures, creating an intelligent platform that combines all necessary infrastructure and intelligence into a single, self-contained, preconfigured, and pre-tested solution. If we examine the first of these next generation of SAN appliance products, DataDirect Networks' SAN DataDirector, we find that it offers streaming professionals all the key features mentioned above, providing them the ability to install a SAN quickly and easily; introduces scalability and flexibility into existing infrastructures; virtualizes storage for pooling and resource sharing; and provides simple and secure centralized data and network management. More importantly, they deliver high bandwidth and content availability needs for QoS operations and a high quality viewing experience. These factors deliver lower TCO and higher ROI with a compelling business advan-tage. For those without any form of SAN infrastructure, the new generation appliance is an elegant, yet complete way, to step into this powerful technology, providing all the functionality needed to deploy a comprehensive, centrally managed, fully scalable Storage Area Network and, for those with early SAN installations, RAID investments, and a base of hardware and software, they offer a powerful capability that can evolve legacy technology investments into powerful, intelligent network storage systems.

As uses for media content continue to evolve, IT professionals are finding new and significant business advantages using SAN technology. The advent of the SAN appliance provides enterprises with a flexible and scalable solution that will allow users to maximize their investments and productivity while bringing end-users richer and more dynamic experiences. With Storage Area Networks--and next generation SAN appliances--the promise of the e-century has finally arrived.

Robert Woolery is the vice president of corporate development and strategic planning at DataDirect Networks.