SAN Services Might Be Worth the Cost for Critical Data

In this Datamation article, Brookend storage networking consultant Chris Evans notes that storage area network (SAN) services may be pricey, but if your data is critical, they just might be worth the cost. Evans outlines some of the SAN services to consider.

One solution to managing large volumes of data is to implement storage area network services, or SAN services. Yet SANs and SAN services are traditionally seen as expensive solutions.

Despite the potential expense, however, the need for SAN services is growing — rapidly. To whit:

• Earlier this month, IDC announced figures on the fourth quarter 2009 shipments of disk storage systems. Despite the economic downturn, shipment of storage system capacity was up 33.4 percent year-over-year at 3,304 petabytes. That’s over 3 exabytes.
• Compare that to figures for 2Q 2007, when growth was at over 50 percent and the capacity shipped a mere 1.3 exabytes. It’s pretty clear that data storage continues to grow at exponential rates, regardless of the economic climate.
• Data (and more importantly information) is the core asset of many businesses, and so as data quantities grow, the need to secure that data becomes ever more important. Add to this the requirement to ensure that data is adequately managed from a regulatory perspective and it’s clear that cost-effective and reliable data storage is a must.

What is the best approach to deploying SAN services within your organization? And how should you choose the right vendor and technology to suit your needs?

Read the rest of the article at Datamation

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