This paper will define and compare the storage area networks (SAN) with network-attached storage (NAS) as well as a historical perspective of directly-attached storage (DAS). Some of the benefits associated with establishing a network storage system will also be identified. This paper will identify some of the general characteristics of SAN architecture and protocols, such as Fibre Channel and iSCSI.

The storage strategy for your organization is dictated by many factors: the nature of the documents and files you need to store, the file usage patterns required to support your business operations, the scope and scale of your business and your infrastructure, and of course, your IT budget. The budgetary factor encompasses not only equipment costs, but also maintenance and management costs. You need to ensure that your business has access to the documents they need when they need them in a way that is flexible, scalable and straightforward to operate and manage.

The facility will showcase the vendor's storage and networking product portfolio for service providers, data centers and enterprise LAN environments, including VCS and Ethernet fabric technologies.

Brocade CEO Michael Klayko sees a long road ahead for cloud computing.

Cisco adds fibre channel over Ethernet support to its MDS 9500 storage.

Associa has switched to Pillar Data Systems' Axiom 600, overhauling their previous EMC Clariion SANs to keep up with storage requirements.

Coraid improves over its EtherDrive SRX platform with a new storage virtualization appliance line.

Dataram has upgraded its caching appliance with high-availability functionality along with improvements in SAN performance.