From a conceptual standpoint,Nas [network attached storage]virtualisation andFans [file area networks] work very
well.
But it's not just a question of Nas -- firms need greater levels
of virtualisation throughout all of their storage infrastructure.
What is popular about these two concepts is that you achieve a
higher level of intelligence, ease of management and higher
utilisation of the physical storage.
Nas and
San [storage area network] environments have done a great job
of networking your host systems to your single storage systems, but
the storage systems themselves aren't networked with one another.
The whole point of networks is to make everything a peer;
everything can talk to everything else. But, that isn't true in our
storage universe where we focus on host systems accessing
individual storage systems.
What Fan does is 'network the networked storage' so that you
have common communication between storage devices. This allows
users to move data between systems for load balancing or tiering. I
can replicate heterogeneously. I can create a federated storage
view of all storage systems to improve access and management. The
power comes when using storage devices in concert with one
another.
These are new concepts in an emerging area of technology, but
ultimately this is where storage networking is headed in
general.
Check out the entire
Nas FAQ guide.