Preface

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Information Technology requirements change every day, but one requirement that hasn t changed since the inception of data processing is the demand for fast, reliable, and massive data storage. Economic trends in the 1990s ”such as the rapid development of e-commerce, the globalization of business, and the mergers of already-giant corporations ”have only escalated the demand.

Traditional data storage methods cannot keep pace with the demands placed on them. Enterprises require more information, delivered faster, and with complete reliability ”and traditional methods are failing to deliver. In fact, any time the word traditional is used in reference to an IT methodology, there is a strong implication that the methodology is out of date.

The Storage Area Network (SAN) is the newest concept and technology for providing fast and reliable mass storage. The SAN meets today s need to store enormous amounts of data and deliver that data at tremendous speed without failure.

The SAN exhibits a flexibility for expansion and performance improvement that is typically referred to as scalability, but that word too often limits our thinking to numbers of devices or their capacities . How big is a disk drive? How many of them can I hook up? Yes, a SAN is scalable in the conventional sense, but it requires an additional descriptor.

That descriptor is modularity. In Future Shock , Alvin Toffler called for modularity as a method of dealing with and surviving rapid change. Individual parts of an entity have a limited lifespan, but can be changed out, so the overall entity has a longer lifespan. The Storage Area Network is highly modular, and that s one of its best features. The capabilities of SAN components are increasing even as this book is being written.

To be sure, the SAN is scalable. It can accommodate a large number of devices and store great volumes of data. Because a SAN is part hardware, part software, and part concept, it has durability and flexibility. It defies that traditional First Law of Information Technology: As soon as you buy the product, it s obsolete.

The Storage Area Network is vital to Information Technology in the 21st century and will be with us for a long time.

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