SANs: Support for the E-Business Storage Infrastructure - Technology Information

ENT, Sept 20, 2000 by Neal Waddington

The merger between AOL and Time Warner sparked much interest in the e-business world for several reasons. First, it represents the "old school" being bought out by the new. Then, there's the sheer size of the deal, and the positions of the companies involved. Plus, combining the three major forces of content delivery (cable, online, and publishing) with one of the most significant content producers in the world, is bound to turn some heads. Let's take a look at these companies.

So, how can a company with about 20 percent of the revenue that Time Warner has buy it out? Let's forget about outrageous market caps and focus on the real message here: Know thy customer! And AOL does--probably better than anyone else in business--that's why the company is worth more.

Time Warner can tell you whether customers have cable TV and read Fortune magazine, but not much more. AOL can tell you infinitely more--not only about its customers, but also frequently about their friends and family, too. Why? Because AOL is a community. It knows you, the people on your buddy list, what you've bought online, what your buddies have bought. And as a result, it can target advertising and promotions specifically to you--all without violating its policy to not sell your name. How? Because AOL owns the presentation of data and the ads you see on the screen--no need for email Spam.

However, to work its marketing muscle, AOL must store and protect all that data, and have it online, universally accessible by all its disparate systems. This is where SANs can help in e-business--they provide the infrastructure to change storage from a static and laborious task into a strategic element in growing and managing your e-business. The addition of a SAN can impact how everyday tasks, such as backup, can be revolutionized into efficient and non-intrusive functions.

How does this happen? It's fairly simple. Take the principles of networks and apply them to storage. First, build storage fabric just like your network fabric, and combine switching, redundancy, intelligent routers/hubs and bridges between WANs. With SANs you no longer have to take systems offline to add storage or reconfigure partitions. SANs allow IT personnel to not only build scalable, high-availability storage networks, but to do so with fewer resources. The real upside here is the ability to store and utilize more information about customers, employees, suppliers, and partners with lower overhead and greater ROI.

E-Business and information Intensity

When it comes to e-business, companies can be categorized based on their level of "information intensity." For example, fast-food restaurants fall into the first category--what we refer to as "hug and lug" companies. Afterall, how often do you buy a cheeseburger online? If the Web site goes down, the overall business won't be significantly impacted. No Web, no problem.

The second category "clicks and mortar" refers to companies using a hybrid model, such as Dell or Barnes & Noble.com--who do both offline and online commerce, and still have warehouses, shipping, and all the physical aspects of running a business. When their Web sites go down, their businesses are impacted, but they don't completely shut down. No Web, no advantage.

The third category includes "online businesses," such as Amazon.com, which, without data about their customers, are dead in the water. No Web, no revenue.

The fourth category consists of pure "information aggregators," such as eBay and Yahoo!. These are the true e-business companies--when their Web sites go down, their businesses come to a halt. No Web, no company.

SANs can be a critical tool for a company as it moves to greater levels of information intensity. They provide the ability to build completely redundant and reliable storage networks that match messaging and telecom networks.

Why Are SANs Significant?

SANs provide the tools to manage more customers, partners, suppliers, employees, and transactions within the existing enterprise. They also improve operations by providing higher availability through redundant access to data, greater scalability by spreading the data across multiple channels, and a significant reduction in CPU and messaging network overhead.

The Internet has increased the rate and amount of data generated for almost every IT environment, Organizations engaged in e-business have seen access to their databases extended from hundreds or thousands of users to literally millions. SANs can significantly enhance the value of a company's infrastructure and the evolution of its e-business. In addition, the seemingly insatiable corporate appetite for storage, driven by applications including e-mail, e-commerce, and data replication, demands the scalability and manageability of network storage.

As you provide greater access to your storage resources, you expose yourself to greater opportunities for security breaches. SANs provide an added level of security and security management tools, which are critical in the e-business world.