Storage area networks (SAN) continue to grow in size and complexity. Often, the ongoing cost of maintenance and upgrades exceeds the initial acquisition and implementation cost. The ideal solution is to find an architecture that provides a simple migration path without disrupting the existing infrastructure. A stackable fibre channel switch can deliver—without diminishing your ability to upgrade and expand in the future.
Read More
|
VMware and blade servers have taken the IT world by storm. Virtual server use has grown over 50 percent, and blade servers account for 12.5 percent of all new servers. Can you incorporate them into your existing frameworks? Yes. Routers can scale server numbers with virtual interfaces, and with fibre channel storage area network (SAN) connectivity, you can reduce testing and development costs in VMware environments.
Read More
|
Corporate e-mail usage is expected to jump 38 percent by 2009. Can our future data centers handle this load? By using QLogic’s fibre channel host bus adapters (HBAs) in the Microsoft Exchange environment, your data centers can handle the load without degrading overall performance—thus providing the bandwidth and throughput you’re going to need.
Read More
|
The Solaris operating system has become the top choice for hosting data center applications. Sun Solaris platforms consistently exceed the reliability requirements of enterprise data centers while at the same time reducing total cost of ownership (TCO). QLogic fibre channel solutions are a perfect match for Solaris environments and successfully meet the input/output requirements of enterprise applications.
Read More
|
IT managers know that choosing the Linux host bus adapter (HBA) for their data center infrastructures can impact the reliability of their systems. That is why Linux-based servers are being deployed in many enterprises. You can use the reliability of QLogic storage area networks (SANs) to drive more value from your SAN investments—giving your IT managers increased reliability and scalability in a hardware portfolio.
Read More
|
Storage area networks (SANs) are key components in IT organizations, as they provide access to and protection of critical data. Managing data storage is becoming increasingly complex, with regulatory and corporate requirements dictating national disaster protection. Whether your company is near or far, remote SANs store your critical data, saving you and your company from losses in even the most dire of circumstances.
Read More
|
Realize the benefits of storage area networks (SANs) by using public or private networks. The benefits of SANs include centralized data management, back up, and restoration of data, as well as remote archiving for disaster recovery and business continuity. Host bus adapters (HBAs), switches, and multiprotocol routers are the keys to the fibre channel network—and the high-quality of select remote sites.
Read More
|
Most IT managers have proven, cost-effective ways to increase the return on investment (ROI) of existing infrastructures—that is, storage area networks (SANs). SANs provide high-availability storage to servers within corporate infrastructures. Connecting low-cost servers to SANs makes business sense, as it dramatically reduces the cost-per-server connection to well below $100 (USD).
Read More
|
Server consolidation is the reason enterprises deploy server virtualization technologies across their data centers, improving server and processor use. As more virtual servers are consolidated onto a single server, demand is increased on the central processing unit (CPU) and host bus interfaces. However, you can do more with less by deploying a fibre channel host bus adapter, enhancing your server consolidation levels.
Read More
|
Traditionally, 1U and blade servers have not been attached to high-end fibre channel storage due to the cost of adding those servers to the storage area network (SANs). However, by leveraging the HP StorageWorks EVA iSCSI Connectivity Option, you can solve this problem.
Read More
|
The storage industry provides an abundance of white papers discussing the ever-changing data management and retention regulations, the need for business continuity, and disaster recovery. The core of these data services is the ability to copy, move, and replicate data—locally and far away. Unfortunately, SANs only reach about 10 km. IT managers need to share, protect, and move data much farther than that. Find out how.
Read More
|
The enterprise environment continues to evolve and change. Regardless of technology breakthroughs and system designs, storage area networks (SANs) continue to provide IT with severe administrative challenges. But by implementing a cost-effective and robust core-to-core solution, system administrators can reduce the management burdens and provide greater access to network resources.
Read More
|
Fibre channel storage area networks (SANs) used to be implemented in only high-end enterprise class data centers, but this is no longer the case. SANs have become more affordable and can be widely implemented without sacrificing performance. When you need to expand your frame-based computer network, consider stackable switches as a cost-effective solution for the infrastructure of a fibre channel SAN.
Read More
|
Small to medium businesses (SMBs) must adapt to technology innovations as well as the demand-driven consumer market. The need for small computer system interfaces (SCSIs) on each server host, along with enhanced security needs have driven SMB costs upwards. Is there a solution? Yes. Storage area networks (SANs) built on stackable switches help reduce costs, and are a viable approach for SMBs.
Read More
|
As clusters grow to address the problems of increasing application complexity, interconnect performance has become a key factor in overall application and clustered system performance. Finding the interconnect performance you need is a complex task— however, when compared with two other adapters, InfiniPath SDR Infiniband interconnected faster and scaled better on high-performance computing (HPC) applications.
Read More
|
Permanent node-to-node data paths through a service area network (SAN) fabric are surprisingly inefficient. Some interswitch links (ISLs) become oversubscribed, while others are underused, and don’t allow you to maximize the function of your existing switch investments. Unclog your SAN’s data paths—and increase reliability and availability, as well as your return on investment.
Read More
|
Ideally, your service area network (SAN) permits an uninterrupted flow of data all the time. Unfortunately, with changes to the SAN fabric—when a server comes online, or when storage ports are added—the attendant tape backups might cause a serious lapse in the flow of data. However, an interoperable solution can keep registered state change notifications (RSCNs) from making your SAN go haywire.
Read More
|
So, you’ve made the switch from a traditional rack server to a blade server. Now, you want to maximize your blade server return on investment (ROI) and reduce your costs further. A variety of input/output (IO) products is out there, specially designed to comply with all original equipment manufacturer (OEM) blade hardware. The next step is to get the facts on how they can benefit you.
Read More
|
“Virtualization” may be a mature concept—but it has by no means stopped evolving. Keen on keeping on top of every new development in virtualization solutions? Don’t get left behind! Learn about the next generation of host bus adaptor (HBA) virtualization technologies and how they can help you consolidate underused servers, support legacy applications, and ease disaster and recovery planning.
Read More
|
One of the main concerns now facing IT managers is how to keep the interoperability of their service area networks (SANs), without sacrificing functionality. What can you do to make your SAN “share everything and play nice”? In fact, there are many options available for extending SAN fabrics. The result: independent routing, improved interoperability, high performance routing, and universal SAN bridging.
Read More
|
The limited distance capabilities of storage area networks (SANs) make it difficult for IT managers to share, protect, and move data over areas greater than ten kilometers. Using routers and switches that link SANs over Internet protocol wide area networks (IP WANs) is one way to approach this difficulty. Go the distance with your SAN—learn what it takes to build and implement SAN-over-WAN solutions.
Read More
|
Are ever-increasing demands for data accessibility causing your storage area network (SAN) to stretch beyond its limits? And as you consider various solutions, are you concerned that your IT budget is being stretched too thin? Put those worries to rest: SAN consolidation solutions can extend the life of your SAN—and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Read More
|
Scalability—or performance? In the past, storage area network (SAN) architects had to choose one over the other with regard to their SANs. Now, however, compromise is no longer necessary. Stackable switch solutions allow for seamless scaling and high performance—which means you can breathe as easily as your data transfers.
Read More
|
Storage area network (SAN) administrators are under constant pressure to reduce costs, particularly in the area of storage systems. iSCSI technology offers an alternative to fibre channel for implementing SANs enabled by Ethernet at a significantly lower total cost of ownership. We contrast the options for connecting a system to an iSCSI SAN, and describe why a full iSCSI offload host bus adapter (HBA) is the best method.
Read More
|
The network attached storage (NAS) model, based on network file systems (NFSs), creates a number of issues for high-performance computing clusters (HPCC) systems. NFS is oriented toward access, not performance—which means that it does not scale as needed for growing HPCC systems. It also adds another layer of latency between the storage and the computing systems. In this white paper, we outline a new model for storage.
Read More
|
“The lower the communications latency, the faster the time-to-solution.” This truism, though logical and truthful, is only useful to IT managers if it is accompanied by suggestions targeting ways to reduce communications latency. But help is here: a single-chip application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), optimized for communications patterns typically found in HPC applications, makes this truism ring truer.
Read More
|
An ever-increasing demand on storage area networks (SANs) has meant a necessary evolution of throughput standards. SAN administrators are now burdened with multiple generations of SAN host bus adaptors (HBAs)—and unwieldy management overhead. A scalable HBA architecture might provide just the functions you need to address your cost, performance, backward compatibility, and future scalability concerns.
Read More
|
Reducing costs and increasing the quantity and availability of data have always been concerns for IT departments. Booting up with a local area network (LAN) has long been one effective way of meeting those needs. However, what you might not know is that storage area network (SAN) booting with iSCSI connections can be even more effective in cutting costs and supplying information—and in providing greater security.
Read More
|
Organizations need lower ownership costs for hardware. But that’s not all. They also need a protected infrastructure investment, and applications that perform the way they need them to, when they need them. To meet these demands, enterprise storage area network (SAN) users must deploy a scalable host bus adapter architecture that addresses cost, performance, backward compatibility, and—most importantly—future scalability.
Read More
|
A critical element of storage area network performance is the selection and deployment of a host bus adapter (HBA) with the right architecture. But high-performance database solutions also need to be complemented by high-performance and scalable input/output connectivity. Choosing the wrong components can result in management complexity—and severely limit an organization’s overall business agility.
Read More
|
Interconnect performance has become a key factor in application and system performance, and this will increasingly be the case as applications become more complex. Indeed, latency and bandwidth are not the only factors defining interconnect performance. Discover the truth behind common interconnect performance misconceptions, and gain a better understanding of how your interconnect solution will perform.
Read More
|
Want even more connectivity options for your storage area network (SAN)? Need to boot your blade server up to iSCSI-based storage systems? Itching to offload iSCSI traffic from the host processor and allow your server to support boot from SAN configurations? This paper outlines how dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) can be adapted in several ways to automate and ease the configuration of your servers.
Read More
|
The ratification of standards is important to any industry. Now, in the realm of storage area networks (SANs), new standards are being put in place to ensure user-friendly and heterogeneous fibre channel switches that allow for multiple vendors and increased interoperability. Before incorporating a multi-switch fabric into your SAN, however, you should know the whys, whats, and hows involved.
Read More
|
Storage area networks (SANs) are complex structures that contain an infinite number of configuration possibilities—making the process of configuring the devices to be installed into the SAN a lengthy one. To simplify the process, QLogic’s configuration wizard provides users with some basic tools to guide them through common SAN tasks, enabling them to easily build stable and secure SAN fabrics for their storage solutions.
Read More
|
The days of storage area networks (SANs) built with hubs and based on private, arbitrated loops are gone. Today’s fully public switches—which include a variety of switch features—make managing large SANs a lot easier. The key to a flexible SAN is the switch’s ability to create zones, which allows the SAN to be partitioned into various groupings and enables SAN managers to allocate storage where it makes the most sense.
Read More
|
The first step to a successful storage area network (SAN) implementation is preplanning. Architecting a SAN not only helps solve issues of storage consolidation, it facilitates day-to-day data center support and maintenance. A SAN investment should save support dollars, not require additional support resources. With a sound implementation strategy, costly upgrades—and many headaches—can be avoided.
Read More
|