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It is critical to the functioning of several applications that cost valuable resources in terms of time and money.
For data to be of use, it needs to be properly stored such that it is easy to access, easy to protect, easy to duplicate for redundancy, easy to backup, easy disaster recovery, and easy to archive.
Information storage presents a challenge to every IT department and you should be equipped with the information necessary to select the most appropriate storage technology for your business.
The storage technology should enable your business to fulfill compliance legislations regarding the storing and archiving of sensitive data so that data integrity and privacy is maintained.
Consider factors like the amount of data to be stored; your budget; growth plans and scalability of your existing systems; your IT staffing; extent of availability required; backup requirements, etc.
Large companies often opt for a combination of solutions DAS is ideal for small businesses where local data sharing is of prime significance.
DAS involves storage devices that are a part of the host computer or are connected to a server.
Thus, networked applications can access the storage only through the server.
DAS offers the advantage of easy installation and lower costs as compared to NAS and SAN devices.
DAS is also easier to maintain so long as the number of servers in use is less.
Management becomes complex as the number of servers escalates as each server needs to be administered separately.
Issues with DAS include an inability to transfer data if the server is down.
Also, since the server also processes other traffic such as emails it can slow down the access to critical data.
Data availability often suffers due to bandwidth problems and bottlenecks in the network.
DAS does not support high scalability.
NAS has developed to tackle the shortcomings of a server-based storage system such as DAS.
NAS devices free the server from the dual job of storing files and application serving.
NAS is dedicated to storage and thus eliminated server slowdowns.
NAS allows for faster file access for multiple clients and leads to better performance and productivity.
NAS is popular amongst SMBs as an entry-level solution and it has a very wide user-base worldwide.
NAS benefits include easy plug-and-play technology that does not require the presence of an IT staff.
Disk drive technology grows cheaper by the day and NAS costs are falling.
A SAN infrastructure is more suited to an enterprise environment.
It is a high performance storage network between servers and storage devices.
It is deployed separate from the LAN.
SANs are popular because they offer reliability necessary for mission-critical applications.
A SAN setup can consist of NAS as well as DAS and a fiber channel that enables the transfer of a large volume of data between points located large distances apart.
SANs offer 24 x 7 availability even for applications that require a large amount of bandwidth, such as database and transaction processing.
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