Learning Guide: Low-cost storage

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If you're looking for resources on low-cost networking, iSCSI, SATA and IP storage, you've come to the right place. SearchStorage.com's editors have put together a stockpile of the latest news, expert advice and tips to help you stay on top of what's going on in the world of low-cost storage. From beginners to experts, there's something for everyone here.

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Table of Contents

  Low-cost disk
  Low-cost networking
  IP storage
  Additional resources

Low-cost disk

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ATA, SATA and SAS -- buzz words you keep hearing when it comes to low-cost storage. Find out about the risk factors, where the technology is headed and how to leverage low-cost solutions.

ATA
Expert tips:

• Disk cost busters -- How to leverage low-cost disk solutions
• Serial ATA adoption ramping up
• The advantages of serial ATA over parallel ATA
  

Expert Q&As:

• Data compatibility between ATA and FC
• SATA, Fibre Channel and ATA disks on the same array?
• NAS and disk-to-disk backup
• Troubleshooting IDE drives
• How many devices can be attached to an IDE cable?
• Who is winning the SATA/ATA race?
• SCSI/FC disks vs. IDE/ATA disks
• Advantages of ATA and SATA disk drives
• Defending ATA technology

Storage magazine insider:

• Deals abound for high-end storage
• Killer serial: Is ATA ready for the enterprise?
• Spend less on storage
• Tune down costs
• Remote DR: Faster, farther and cheaper
• Desktop-class Fibre Channel to replace ATA and SATA?

In the news:

• Storage Clips: Hitachi's new hard drives to take on ATA
• HDS moves downmarket with ATA-based array
• Tape's new love affair with disk
• Users dump Fibre Channel for ATA
• At 400 GB, Hitachi DeskStar is new heavyweight champ
• Deals abound for high-end storage

SATA
Expert tips:

• Are SATA drives ready for the enterprise?
• How to get SCSI reliability on a SATA budget
• Cheap SATA spurs D2D
• Plan before you implement SATA
• How to prevent common problems in SATA drives
• Steeling SATA for duty
• Should you choose a SATA-based array?
• The advantages of SATA II over SATA 1
• How SATA drives hook up to a SAN
• Where the SATA vs. SCSI race stands
• Serial Attached SCSI gains momentum
• Backup budgets have it MAID with cheap disk
• How to store e-mail on the cheap

Expert Q&As:

• SATA connectivity issues
• SATA, Fibre Channel and ATA disks on the same array?
• Who is winning the SATA/ATA race?
• How SATA drives hook up to a SAN
• SATA to SCSI comparison
• The scoop on SATA and SCSI technologies
• Advantages of ATA and SATA disk drives
• SATA as an alternative to serial storage architecture
• Staging older files to the SATA partition
• Using NetBackup to backup Serial ATA
• The difference between SATA and FATA

Storage magazine insider:

• SATA arrays on cheap-ish
• Steeling for SATA duty
• Spend less on storage
• Tune down costs
• SATA drive challenges SCSI functionality
• Serial ATA adoption ramping up
• Remote DR: Faster, farther and cheaper
• Survey says: Serial ATA will be hot technology of 2004
• Desktop-class Fibre Channel to replace ATA and SATA?
• Cheap SATA spurs D2D
• SATA II doubles disk speed to 3Gb/sec

In the news:

• Industry debates the role of SATA drives
• Snap users get a boost
• IBM offers low-cost disk, tamper-proof tape
• IBM promises lower bill for remote replication
• AMCC aims to cut RAID controller costs
• Industry debates the role of SATA drives
• Sun recharges its storage line
• HP snubs SATA for low-cost Fibre drive
• Sun lets SATA plans out of the bag
• Serial ATA product handbook
• At 400 GB, Hitachi DeskStar is new heavyweight champ
• How low-cost storage can change your data center

SAS
Expert tips:

• Make way for serial-attached SCSI
• Where emerging technologies fit into the data center

Expert Q&As:

• SAS disk drive advantage?
• Where SAS will play out

Storage magazine insider:

• Spend less on storage
• No SAS for networked storage
• Whys and wherefores of SAS
• Hot technologies for 2005 and beyond

In the news:

• Hitachi drops 2.5-inch SAS drives
• Storage Clips: Seagate's SAS drives ready for OEMs
• Seagate touts SAS drives as faster alternative to SATA

Low-cost networking

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Low-cost strategies do fit into the SAN and NAS shop. Take a look at NAS vs. iSCSI, iSCSI SAN clusters, how SATA drives hook up to a SAN and more low-cost solutions.

SAN
Expert tips:

• Checklist: Zone your SAN in five steps
• Learning Guide: SAN
• How to choose the best switch for your SAN or LAN
• Expand your SAN: No-sweat SAN design tools
• SAN road map: How to scale beyond a single fabric
• How to design a core/edge SAN
• Checklist: Ten steps to troubleshooting SAN/NAS performance problems
• SAN-in-a-box: Fibre Channel performance at iSCSI prices?
• For compliance, neither SAN nor NAS are a slam dunk
• How SATA drives hook up to a SAN
• Dueling SAN technologies: NAS vs. iSCSI
• How to tweak Ethernet for iSCSI SANs
• Microsoft supports iSCSI SAN clusters – kind of
• iSCSI and FC tools, where are you?
• iSCSI bites into the price of Fibre Channel
• Which switches to consider for iSCSI SANS

Expert Q&As:

• SAN and NAS (heads), together at last
• Moving database from SAN to NAS
• What do you think about SAN-in-a-box?
• How SATA drives hook up to a SAN
• What type of switches should I use for pure iSCSI SAN?
• Managing iSCSI/FCIP SANs with SRM/HSM products
• Is it possible to SAN boot using an iSCSI adapter?

Storage magazine insider:

• Slash SAN costs
• Hot technologies in 2004
• Getting ready for IP SANs

In the news:

• Firms experiencing more SAN-related disruptions than expected
• SAN disk-as-disk
• Storage Clips: Microsoft launches simple SAN club
• Learning Guide: SAN management
• HP kills OpenView SAN manager, OEMs AppIQ
• Storage Clips: EqualLogic deploys giant IP SAN
• More choices for integrating IP SANs
• HP offers low-cost SAN gear
• Sub-10,000 SANs become a reality
• New player enters the low-cost SAN game

NAS
Expert tips:

• How to use NAS gateways
• How low will RAID costs go?
• Dueling SAN technologies: NAS vs. iSCSI

Expert Q&As:

• NAS box data movers
• Windows NAS advice
• Security issues in NAS backup
• Moving database from SAN to NAS
• Is NAS right for our needs?
• How do you defrag a hard drive on NAS?
• Mysterious formatting on a NAS hard drive
• Is NAS a low-end technology?
• Are there any reasons to migrate from NAS to iSCSI

Storage magazine insider:

• NAS nurtures iSCSI growth

In the news:

• Midrange NAS survey
• Storage Clips: Dell, EMC team up on NAS
• Storage Clips: EMC adds NAS Acopia switch
• NAS boom spells trouble for users
• EMC raises the bar for NAS
• HDS offers NAS blade, cuts ties with NetApp
• Top 10 SAN/NAS trends of 2004
• Storage Clips: Iomega updates NAS servers
• Cisco to resell EMC Celerra NAS
• Storage Clips: BlueArc smashes NAS IOPS record
• NAS clustering break 1 GB barrier
• Storage Clips: HP offers low-cost NAS iSCSI

IP storage

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IP storage -- what's it all about? Keep on top of iSCSI, FCIP and iFCP technologies as well what's up with Fibre SANs and fiber IP networks.

iSCSI
Expert tips:

• MC TOEs the iSCSI line
• Five ways to secure iSCSI
• Does the midrange market belong to iSCSI?
• How to store e-mail on the cheap
• Dueling SAN technologies: NAS vs. iSCSI
• How to tweak Ethernet for iSCSI SANs
• Microsoft supports iSCSI SAN clusters – kind of
• Aiming for iSCSI targets
• iSCSI and FC tools, where are you?
• iSCSI bites into the price of Fibre Channel
• Which switches to consider for iSCSI SANS

Expert Q&As:

• Has iSCSI arrived?
• Does Fibre Channel compare with iSCSI? Which one is better?
• Data warehousing with iSCSI for SQL Server 2000
• When does iSCSI arbitration take place?
• Is it cost-effective to implement iSCSI on a tape drive?
• Connecting an iSCSI storage solution with a Unix or Windows host
• What type of switches should I use for pure iSCSI SAN?
• What can iSCSI do that FC can't
• Managing iSCSI/FCIP SANs with SRM/HSM products
• Are there any reasons to migrate from NAS to iSCSI
• Is it possible to SAN boot using an iSCSI adapter?
• What will it be, iSCSI or iFCP

Storage magazine insider:

• NAS nurtures iSCSI growth
• Hot technologies in 2004
• Tune down costs
• User: I want my iSCSI HBA
• iSCSI for Unix on the way
• Survey says: I want my iSCSI
• iSCSI: Are we there yet?
• iSCSI waters getting warmer
• NAS nurtures iSCSI growth
• Do you plan on implementing iSCSI?

In the news:

• ISCSI goes where FC dares not
• Has iSCSI arrived?
• IBM gets back to iSCSI with entry-level server
• EMC draws battle line with iSCSI
• Dirt cheap iSCSI software hits the shelves
• Storage Clips: HP offers low-cost NAS iSCSI
• Mirroring data over IP

IP networks
Expert tips:

• Top 10 IP storage tips

Expert Q&As:

• Should we use CAT 5 cabling to assign and IP?
• The difference between IP storage and iSCSI
• The differences between iFCP and FCIP
• Managing iSCSI/FCIP SANs with SRM/HSM products
• Mixing Fibre SANs with fiber IP networks
• What will it be, iSCSI or iFCP

Storage magazine insider:

• Remote DR: Faster, farther and cheaper
• IP storage delivers
• Getting ready for IP SANs
• IP storage delivers

In the news:

• Crash Course: IP SANs
• Strategic Storage: Eyeing IP storage
• IP storage: Do you speak geek?
• More choices for integrating IP SANs

Additional resources

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Below you will find a list of SearchStorage.com's Low-cost alerts that are geared to keep storage professionals ahead of the low-cost knowledge curve. You'll also find low-cost tips and tricks from how to locate low-cost snapshot products to mainframe storage on the cheap.

Low-cost alerts

• Where the SATA vs. SCSI race stands
• Which switches to consider for iSCSI SANs
• iSCSI bites into the price of Fibre Channel
• How SATA drives hook up to a SAN
• Cut costs with tiered backups
• Bargain hunting for NetBackup
• Sub-$10,000 SANs become a reality
• Is low-cost Fibre Channel finally here?

More low-cost tips and tricks

• Enterprise-class RAID functions: What they are and when to use them
• Webcast: Deploying iSCSI
• Webcast: How low-cost storage can change your data center
• Usage guide to SATA and other low-cost disk drives
• Fast Guide: iSCSI
• Help finding low-cost snapshot products
• Low-cost storage, standards take shape
• Disk vs. tape, for low-cost storage
• How to determine what data to store on low-cost disk
• Archive storage is more than cheap disk
• Mainframe storage on the cheap
• Prime time for secondary storage
• Tape's new love affair with disk
• IBM offers low-cost disk, tamper-proof tape
• IBM promises lower bill for remote replication
• AMCC aims to cut RAID controller costs
• IDC: Fibre Channel switch prices dropping