Storage Area Network

The Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) defines the SAN as a network whose primary purpose is the transfer of data between computer systems and storage elements. A SAN consists of a communication infrastructure, which provides physical connections; and a management layer, which organizes the connections, storage elements, and computer systems so that data transfer is
secure and robust. The term SAN is usually (but not necessarily) identified with block I/O services rather than file access services. A SAN can also be a storage system consisting of storage elements, storage
devices, computer systems, and/or appliances, plus all control software,
communicating over a network.

A SAN allows “any-to-any” connection acrossthe network, using interconnect elements such as routers, gateways, hubs, switches and directors. It eliminates the traditional dedicated connection between a server and storage, and the concept that the server effectively “owns and manages” the storage devices. It also eliminates any restriction to the amount of data that a server can access, currently limited by the number of storage devices attached to the individual server. Instead, a SAN introduces the
flexibility of networking to enable one server or many heterogeneous servers to share a common storage utility, which may comprise many storage devices, including disk, tape, and optical storage. Additionally, the storage utility may be located far from the servers that use it.
The SAN can be viewed as an extension to the storage bus concept, which enables storage devices and servers to be interconnected using similar elements as in local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs): Routers, hubs, switches, directors, and gateways. A SAN can be shared between servers
and/or dedicated to one server. It can be local, or can be extended over geographical distances.

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