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NETWORK READY STORAGE EMERGING PARADIGM
Market research firm Strategic Research Corp. of Santa
Barbara, Calif. is predicting a new storage system paradigm that it
calls network ready storage. One reason this new storage architecture
is gathering support is the problem information system managers have
disk storage to existing network systems.
Today, research firm says to add storage to a network can be done by
adding disk drives to existing servers. A second is to add another server.
Both procedures disrupts network operation and must be done at off peak
time. The first can take up to five hours; the second can take up to
two days.
Network ready storage offers a third less disruptive alternative that
takes minutes. It involves plugging a new disk server into the local
area network and installing and connecting a power supply. It can be
brought on-line without shutting down the network, and requires no changes
to existing file servers.
It consists of a simplified server that performs only one function—controlling
disk storage—but performs it without having to meet the conflicting
requirements of a general purpose system. It can store files used in
applications and databases, however, it cannot run applications or databases.
The NRS approach maintains access to data during server outages, since
it removes storage from the server.
Configuring the new storage server “involves very few steps made
easy through a simple administrative interface that is often menu-driven
or graphical,” Farid Neema, President of Peripheral Concepts explains.
“Furthermore, NRS is not affected by upgrades of servers, operating
systems and applications.”
Once attached to a network backbone, the new storage subsystem becomes
transparently available as a network resource to all clients. It is
platform and operating system independent, and appears to any application
as another server.
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