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  • S

    What is a SAN? Ultimate storage area network guide

    A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated high-speed network or subnetwork that interconnects and presents shared pools of storage devices to multiple servers.

  • What is SSD RAID (solid-state drive RAID)?

    SSD RAID (solid-state drive RAID) is a methodology commonly used to protect data by distributing redundant data blocks across multiple SSDs.

  • What is storage virtualization?

    Storage virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device or pool of available storage capacity.

  • T

    tape drive

    A tape drive is a device that stores computer data on magnetic tape, especially for backup and archiving purposes.

  • tebibyte (TiB)

    A tebibyte (TiB) is a unit of measure used to describe computing capacity.

  • Terabyte (TB)

    A terabyte (TB) is a unit of digital data that is equal to about 1 trillion bytes.

  • Tier 0

    Tier 0 is a level of data storage that is faster, and perhaps more expensive, than any other level in the storage hierarchy.

  • tiered storage

    Tiered storage is a method for assigning different categories of data to various types of storage media to reduce overall storage costs and improve the performance and availability of mission-critical applications.

  • TLC flash (triple-level cell flash)

    TLC flash (triple-level cell flash) is a type of NAND flash memory that stores three bits of data per cell.

  • U

    unified storage

    Unified storage -- sometimes called network unified storage or multiprotocol storage -- is a storage system that enables users to run and manage files and applications from a single device.

  • USB flash drive

    A USB flash drive -- also known as a stick, thumb or pen drive -- is a plug-and-play portable storage device that uses flash memory and can attach to a keychain.

  • utility storage

    Utility storage is a service model in which a provider makes storage capacity available to an individual, organization or business unit on a pay-per-use basis.

  • What is U.2 SSD (formerly SFF-8639)?

    A U.2 SSD is a high-performance data storage device designed to support the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface using a small form factor (SFF) connector that is also compatible with standard SAS and SATA-based spinning disks and solid-state drives (SSDs).

  • V

    virtual LUN (virtual logical unit number)

    A virtual LUN (virtual logical unit number) is a representation of a storage area that is not tied to any physical storage allocation.

  • virtual memory

    Virtual memory is a memory management technique where secondary memory can be used as if it were a part of the main memory.

  • virtual SAN appliance (VSA)

    A virtual SAN appliance (VSA) is a software bundle that allows a storage manager to turn the unused storage capacity in his network's virtual servers into a storage area network (SAN).

  • virtual storage area network (VSAN)

    A virtual storage area network (VSAN) is a logical partition in a physical storage area network (SAN).

  • VRAM (video RAM)

    VRAM (video RAM) refers to any type of random access memory (RAM) specifically used to store image data for a computer display.

  • W

    What is wear leveling?

    Wear leveling is a process that is designed to extend the life of solid-state storage devices.

  • World Wide Name (WWN)

    A World Wide Name (WWN) is a unique identifier that is hard-coded into each Fibre Channel (FC) device by the device's manufacturer.

  • WORM (write once, read many)

    In computer media, write once, read many, or WORM, is a data storage technology that allows data to be written to a storage medium a single time and prevents the data from being erased or modified.

  • write amplification factor (WAF)

    Write amplification factor (WAF) is a numerical value that represents the amount of data a solid-state drive (SSD) controller writes in relation to the amount of data that the host's flash controller writes.

  • write endurance

    Write endurance is the number of program/erase (P/E) cycles that can be applied to a block of flash memory before the storage media becomes unreliable.

  • Y

    yobibyte (YiB)

    A yobibyte (YiB) is a unit of measure used to describe data capacity as part of the binary system of measuring computing and storage capacity.

  • yottabyte (YB)

    A yottabyte (YB) is a measure of theoretical storage capacity and data volumes equal to 2 to the 80th power bytes, or approximately a million trillion megabytes (MB).

  • Z

    What is ZFS?

    ZFS is a local file system and logical volume manager created by Sun Microsystems to direct and control the placement, storage and retrieval of data in enterprise-class computing systems.

  • zebibyte (ZiB)

    A zebibyte (ZiB) is a unit used to measure computing and storage capacity.

  • zettabyte

    A zettabyte is a unit of measurement used by technology professionals and the general public to describe a computer or other device's storage capacity.