Tom Clark

The initial adoption of SAN technology was promoted by Compaq, Sun, and other vendors in the form of small arbitrated loop storage networks. Typically configured with two or more servers, a Fibre Channel loop hub, and a large storage array, these early SANs found homes in top tier enterprises for mission-critical business applications. Although there […]

The evolution of open systems SAN technology is constantly shaped by diverse market contradictions. Customers, for example, often make product selections based on unique and proprietary features while at the same time demanding that their vendors comply with open standards. Likewise, vendors may collaborate to develop and promote open specifications such as the Storage Management […]

As articulated several years ago, the mission of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is to ensure that storage networks become efficient, complete, and trusted solutions across the IT community.While this is a noble goal for a vendor association, it implies that SANs have not been efficient, have been incomplete, and have not established widespread […]

Storage administrators are often the unsung heroes of data management. Charged with maintaining data availability and safeguarding the vital information that drives their companies’ businesses, storage administrators frequently face restrictive budgets, a lack of support from upper management, and the joy of juggling the requirements of multiple departments simultaneously. For most IT shops, the storage […]

In insecure times, security threats seem to be everywhere. When even little old ladies are made to take off their shoes for the airport x-ray machines, you know that everyone is a suspect until proven otherwise. SAN technology, which in its early career avoided strip searches before entering the data center, is also now coming […]

Since the advent of SANs, customers have complained that storage area networks are difficult to manage. Along with interoperability issues, the lack of comprehensive and robust SAN management has inhibited the widespread adoption of SANs by the IT market. And although progress has been made on the interoperability front, SAN management itself seems to be […]

Vendors sell technology that hopefully fulfills a customer’s application requirements. Unfortunately, vendors usually know far more about the “speeds and feeds” of their particular products than they do about real customer needs. And although customers are very close to their own specific business agendas, they may not be able to effectively align those business requirements […]