Why, oh why won't you network your storage? That's the question raised by Network Appliance in its latest white paper regarding the reasons why even smaller companies should use SAN technology in their storage centers. The paper focuses on convincing companies to drop their current, inefficient DAS systems (direct attached storage) for the more streamlined SAN implementations.

What the paper doesn't fully address is why most are still using DAS. The cost of implementing SAN is still prohibitive for some companies. And these are not plug-n-play type of implementations - there's a level of complexity that deters many an IT department from attempting a switch.

There are distinct advantages to SAN. Administration is much easier because there is no physical moving involved when shifting data to another server. Also, many servers can share in the same pool of space available. Servers can boot from the SAN. SAN can be set up to replicate data remotely, which is very useful with disaster recovery.

Should you consider switching? That depends on your goals and your budget. Start with the Network Appliance white paper, then listen to or read the presentation by Datalink on whether virtualization is right for you.