Storage Solutions

As your IT needs grow, the number of servers continues to grow until it is no longer feasible to store data in each server's local hard disk. The more efficient method is to set up a SAN (Storage Area Network) and relocate all data into it in order to reduce costs and have better management.

A SAN is essentially a dedicated storage network that carries I/O traffic only between servers and storage devices it does not carry any application traffic, which eliminates the bottlenecks associated with using a single network fabric for all applications. A SAN can also enable direct storage-to-storage interconnectivity, and lends itself to the exploitation of new breeds of clustering technology and to getting the best out of Network Attached Storage devices that can intelligently provide disk and tape capabilities to one or more servers.

The benefits of sharing storage, usually simplifies storage administration, and adds flexibility since cables and storage devices do not have to be physically moved to move storage from one server to another.
Abtech offers SAN solutions from the leading manufacturers:

• Hitachi Storage
• LSI Storage
• Nexsan Storage
• HP Storage
• IBM TotalStorage Storage
• IBM XIV Storage
• PivotStor
• Quantum Storage
• Glossary of Storage Terms

The other benefits of enlisting Abtech to build or SAN include the ability to allow servers to boot from the SAN itself. This allows for a quick and easy replacement of faulty servers since the SAN can be reconfigured so that a replacement server can use the LUN of the faulty server. This process can take as little as half an hour and is a relatively new idea being pioneered in newer data centers.
Storage Area Networks allow for:

• Fast backup speeds that match the allotted backup window without adversely affecting network band-width.
• Flexibility to connect and share remote devices and servers.
•  Improved scalability to expand the storage infrastructure without rebuilding.
• Interoperability between disparate systems.
• Centralized management to lower the overall total cost of ownership.

Here is a comparison between Ultra Wide SCSI and Fibre Channel SAN:


Storing and managing data in a cost and time effective way is becoming one of the most difficult duties of IS. Most storage currently resides in a Direct Attach Storage (DAS) model meaning that the data is physically attached to a single server’s backplane.
Common problems of this model are:

• Availability-if that server goes down, your users cannot access the data
• Severe underutilization of total disk resources. On average, the DAS customer is only using 40% of their disks while other servers are starving for more storage.
• Servers are purchased to increase performance and storage capacity. Today, storage represents 50% of the server price. Backing up multiple servers across the LAN affects users or exceeds your back-up window.