Virtualization takes hold: enterprise data centers embrace new/old technology to better utilize resources, but security, compliance and mobility issues must be addressed

Communications News,  May, 2007  by Jeff Jilg

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NFM enables seamless file access regard less of physical location in heterogeneous environments, enabling end-user access to the mission-critical files and tools needed for business success. The most-effective NFM solutions act as a router between clients and the file servers, adding a virtual namespace layer in the storage architecture.

NFM solutions are network-based, providing a virtual layer in the storage architecture to enable consistent namespace features while reducing management overhead. Network-based namespace solutions also have fewer nodes to configure and components to fail.

NFM solutions allow administrators to build namespaces for UNIX and Windows networks with a single management interface, regardless of the OS platform. Using NFM, administrators can match capacity with business demands seamlessly, with little network reconfiguration or downtime required.

NFM solutions maintain data consistency through robust data migration techniques, a necessity for high-level disaster-recovery protection. They also provide location-independent data availability, ensuring distance is not an inhibitor to business success.

Effective NFM solutions allow different departments within the same enterprise to organize and access the same file data using different views. Wherever data resides throughout its lifecycle, end-users are able to access that file consistently in the same way it was accessed on the day it was created.

Panos Tsirigotis is chief software architect at NeoPath Networks, Santa Clara, Calif.

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COPYRIGHT 2007 Nelson Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning