13.4 STORAGE AREA NETWORKS
Fast network connectivity such as provided by Fibre Channel and 10 gigabit Ethernet has enabled construction of dedicated networks built specifically for storage access and management. These networks are called storage area networks (SANs). SANs logically extend local storage buses, making collections of storage devices accessible to all computer platforms—small, medium, and large. Storage devices can be collocated with the hosts or they can be miles away serving as “hot” backups for a primary processing site.
SANs offer leaner and faster access to large amounts of storage than can be provided by the network-attached storage (NAS) model. In a typical NAS system, all file accesses must pass through a particular file ...
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