What is a Storage Area Network?

Storage Area Network (often called SAN) is a separate, independent network of high-speed storage devices.

A storage area network device is a dedicated system that contains disks for storing information. This is unlike a typical computer which has been designed to carry out a number of different functions. As a result, a storage area network enables the servers within a network to be used for running applications and processing data, not for storing large amounts of information.

A storage area network system is therefore more powerful as the servers do not need to be used to search and provide information to the users, and the capacity of servers does not need to be increased when further storage is required.

A SAN is designed in such a way that the information stored on it can be accessed by all servers via the Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN). This means that all users can access information extremely easily.

Storage area networks typically use a fibre channel, which is a high speed method that storage devices uses to communicate with each other. As a result, storing and retrieving information is extremely fast.

In summary, a storage area network is a completely independent storage system from a company’s servers, making the storage generally available across a network. This network of high-speed storage devices are sold by many of the world’s leading vendors including: Brocade, Cisco, IBM, Symantec, NetApp, Dell, HP, Equallogic and EMC.