On Storage
Storage Network Products and Solutions
Generally, enterprise customers implement a storage network to consolidate and centralize their processes and to manage and protect data. Some smaller businesses may hold the misconception that storage area networks (SANs) are prohibitively expensive, but there are companies like HP that proved shared storage arrays from $5,000.
The HP StorageWorks X1000 G2 Network Storage Systems, for example, can be both block and file-based storage. The advent of new server-to-storage interconnect topologies like shared SAS and iSCSI have allowed customers to get the benefits of a SAN at a much lower cost. Scale-out modular SANs combined with thin provisioning technologies also have changed the long term cost of ownership. It is no longer necessary to try to predict your storage consumption needs far into the future and purchase an expensive SAN controller upfront.