14.4 Human Factors

The convergence of storage and networking into a single technology has generated new architectures, new concepts, and a unique vocabulary known only to (and often disputed by) the initiated. Although vendors and technologists have assumed the role of evangelists to educate customers and explain the many benefits of SANs, there is no single audience on the customer premises responsible for both storage and networking. Enterprise networks may have server administrators who are responsible for installing, configuring, and maintaining servers with direct-attached storage, but no one dedicated to overall storage administration. Similarly, the responsibility of network administrators typically stops at the front end of the server, where the domain of familiar IP networking ends and the mysterious realm of SCSI and LUNs begins.

The division of labor between server/storage administrators and traditional network administrators within an enterprise is so complete that it is often the SAN vendor that brings the two groups into the same room and makes the introductions. The eyes of the storage administrators glaze over when the discussion turns to SAN routing protocols or State Change Notifications; the network administrators stare at the ceiling when it turns to LUN masking or tape backup strategies. Hopefully, in the end some crossover occurs, with storage administrators recognizing the value of networking their storage resources, and network administrators appreciating the new sphere of influence introduced by SANs.

One of the challenges articulated by CIOs and executives responsible for overall information access within their organizations is the difficulty of integrating networked storage with their existing staff. This integration was particularly difficult when SAN solutions required expertise on Fibre Channel fabrics and diagnostic methods. Although vendor-specific training certification and the SNIA FC SAN certification program have addressed the granular aspects of architecture-specific SANs, there is as yet no comprehensive training or certification program for storage networking technology or SAN design. Consequently, although a storage administrator may be able to correctly configure a particular vendor's product, the overall SAN design may not be optimized for the application it serves.

Between the ideal of the ubiquitous, simplified storage utility and the current reality of complex and limited SANs, customers and the industry will need to invest in human resources to leverage the long-term cost benefits of shared storage solutions. The alternative to upgrading the human skills infrastructure is to simply add more servers to accommodate more direct-attached storage capacity, more server administrators to manage them, and thus significantly more cost over time.