Storage Consolidation
Network attached storage (NAS), is perhaps the simplest way to add disk capacity to your network. NAS boxes can support RAID and terabyte sized volumes at reasonable prices that make them desirable. MIS Center professionals have implemented NAS solutions for many businesses seeking a very cost effective and high performance backup solution. Also, we have leveraged NAS with our data center based Disaster Recovery solution for entry-level installations. NAS can be useful for small-scale Storage Consolidation projects.
Basic NAS units are not desirable in mid to large scale Storage Consolidation effort for a variety of reasons:
- File security is not usually as strong on basic NAS drives as can be implemented on DAS (Direct Attached Storage, the disk inside a server) or SAN (Storage Area Network) volumes
- Management capabilities are not as robust
- RAID options are usually limited
- Total capacity is limited
Large NAS units are SAN capable for Storage Virtualization and have extremely powerful administration and functional capabilities. They overcome limitations of basic NAS units. Storage Area Networks solve these limitations while they offer the benefit of integrating well with XenSource and VMware. The cost of a SAN reflects the added capabilities that it can offer over NAS or DAS storage.
MIS Center professionals will work with your organization to design and implement the storage consolidation solution that fits your business needs. By assessing your current storage usage and identifying key growth areas we can help formulate a plan to maximize your growth capacity and minimize cost.