SANs today: Enterprise level features and solutions at SMB prices

By Scott Tam, Head of International Business Development, Huawei Symantec | Oct 14, 2010

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A storage area network (SAN) comprises the most powerful technology available for block-level storage and has been used by enterprises for years. For many small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) though, SANs were long out of reach due predominately to their high cost. In addition, many SMBs simply did not have the need for large amounts of scalable storage space and were therefore able to function adequately using direct-attached storage.

Two underlying factors have changed the storage landscape and have made SANs more important and accessible to SMBs. The first is the recent explosion of digital data, and the second is the increasing availability of entry-level, feature-packed SANs that are specially priced and designed for SMBs.

Managing storage in an age of data explosion

According to research firm IDC, the amount of digital information created, captured, or replicated in 2010 will amount to 1.2 zettabytes (1.2 trillion gigabytes). By 2020, IDC estimates this will balloon to 35 zettabytes or, in other words, 35 trillion gigabytes. As a result of this massive growth in data, SMBs will face a number of challenges in the coming years as they try to deal with the increasing flow of information.

First, SMBs do not necessarily have standardized data storage, backup, recovery, or archiving methods. This is due in part to cost constraints, and due in part to existing behavioral norms. While there is more digital content to handle now more than ever, resources at SMBs have stayed at the same levels. With limited resources, many SMBs are forced to be very cost-conscious and might not even have someone on staff dedicated to IT backup. Additionally, IT staff at SMBs may not be able to keep up with the increasing flow of data.

Given the limited resources, many SMBs may not have developed systematic ways to handle backups. Disk space is relatively cheap so many SMBs simply buy more disk space on an ad hoc basis and neglect to consider the moment when they might need to perform a comprehensive backup.

Those who have had the misfortune of having to recover data are exposed to the nightmare caused by haphazard backups and the existence of fragmented information located across multiple servers and storage elements.  Lucky SMBs would have been able to recover data after spending an excruciating amount of time, while many more are confronted with the reality that their inadequate backups have caused them to permanently lose important business data.