In a previous post I mentioned SAN stands for Storage Area Network. However, what exactly is a a SAN? A good description is:
a network of two or more devices communicating via a serial SCSI protocol such as fibre channel
Storage Area Networks are used to store and access data in a fast and efficient manner. They also offer many capabilities beyond basic storage and retrievel – such as backup and replication.
The key point that differentiates a SAN from a LAN or NAS is the protocol used. In the case of a SAN data is transferred via Fibre Channel or iSCSI.
The main advantages os a SAN are:
-
faster communication that SCSI ( a single connection can typically run at 2 Gb/s in each direction)
-
the device capacity of a Fibre Channel SAN is very high – up to 16 million in theory!
-
easy access to all SAN devices via computers attached to the SAN (eas of administration)
here is a video that explains SANs in more detail:
