There are different approaches to clustered network storage (CNS) supporting SAN, NAS and Object-based storage solutions. Some SAN solutions only support FC and others only iSCSI. Certain products integrate disk drives in the intelligent controller while others use external arrays. There are NAS solutions that support a single file system while others aggregate multiple file systems. This article examines some of the approaches and nuances of CNS. SAN, NAS and Object-based storage (ObS) are the three categories of primary network storage. SAN systems support FC and/or iSCSI and are used for database, e-mail and file storage. NAS is typically used for file storage, file sharing, images and other unstructured data. ObS is a relatively new category of storage open systems environments and often requires custom APIs for integration between applications and storage. ObS is predominately used to implement unstructured data archives with the ability to prescribe and enforce data retention policies. Each of the above storage personality has one or more vendors that offer solutions with, clustered network architectures.
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