SAN technology and arrays
Find news and information on storage area network technologies and arrays, including Fibre Channel SANs, iSCSI storage, SAN backups and SAN switches. Learn the difference between SAN vs. NAS architecture, the latest in SAN design and news about SAN array systems as they are launched.
Top Stories
-
Feature
15 Nov 2023
Comparing RAID levels: 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 50 explained
RAID protects data and improves storage performance and availability, but it can be confusing. Read about the different levels of RAID, the pros and cons, and where they work best. Continue Reading
-
Tip
19 Jan 2023
Fibre Channel vs. iSCSI: What are the differences?
Discover how Fibre Channel and iSCSI compare when it comes to meeting SAN performance, ease of use, manageability, total package and TCO requirements. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
23 Apr 2019
Cisco, Dell Technologies renew VxBlock dalliance
Cisco and Dell Technologies may be rivals in the server business, but when it comes to converged infrastructure, the two vendors remain strong partners. Cisco, EMC and VMware in 2009 formed VCE, a ... Continue Reading
-
News
13 Feb 2019
New Dell EMC all-flash Isilon hardware compresses NAS data
Dell EMC Isilon F810 all-flash NAS array and ClarityNow software tackle unstructured file data through increased performance and data reduction over previous versions. Continue Reading
-
Feature
10 Feb 2019
Broadcom Brocade SAN automation
Broadcom automates SAN management using a command-line interface and open source tools connecting to Brocade fabric and switches in a storage area network. Continue Reading
-
Feature
10 Feb 2019
HPE Nimble Storage arrays
Our Products of the Year judges give HPE's all-flash arrays high marks for built-in analytics, automation, ease of use and price-to-performance balance for midmarket enterprises. Continue Reading
-
News
30 Jan 2019
University of Utah prescribes Hitachi storage for data woes
University of Utah Health extends its Hitachi Vantara storage implementation, adding the Hitachi Content Platform object storage to modernize its data center. Continue Reading
-
News
16 Jan 2019
Datera storage software trains for long run on HPE servers
Hewlett Packard Enterprise and startup Datera combine on block-storage appliances and expect to compete against Dell EMC's ScaleIO-based VxRack Flex hyper-converged systems. Continue Reading
-
News
14 Jan 2019
Enterprise storage arrays: 2018 Products of the Year finalists
Eleven storage vendors, including legacy brands and some startups, entered arrays for consideration in the Storage magazine and SearchStorage 2018 Products of the Year competition. Continue Reading
-
News
23 Dec 2018
Broadcom Brocade launches 2 new SAN management products
Broadcom releases new Brocade SAN management software to help users visualize and optimize storage and a new Fibre Channel extension switch to speed long-distance replication. Continue Reading
-
News
10 Dec 2018
Broadcom Emulex flashes Gen 7 Fibre Channel adapter for NVMe
Broadcom releases new Emulex Gen 7 Fibre Channel host bus adapter designed for high-performance NVMe-based flash storage systems with support for 32GFC and 64GFC and PCIe 4.0. Continue Reading
-
News
29 Oct 2018
NetApp all-flash storage fuels hybrid cloud stance, CEO says
NetApp CEO George Kurian says data center customers are adopting more all-flash file and block storage to manage data across multiple public and private clouds. Continue Reading
-
News
02 Oct 2018
HPE StoreOnce backup adds capacity, protection capabilities
Hewlett Packard Enterprise spruces up StoreOnce secondary storage with federated management of up to 100 appliances. HPE also deepened the StoreOnce integration with Commvault. Continue Reading
-
News
27 Sep 2018
Lenovo and Veeam integration teams storage with protection
Thanks to a new integration, Veeam and Lenovo customers can purchase Veeam's data management and protection with Lenovo's software-defined infrastructure or SAN products. Continue Reading
-
News
13 Sep 2018
Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 launched for entry-level SAN
While the industry watches its midrange lines, Dell EMC pushes out a new array of entry-level, flashy PowerVault systems for smaller organizations and branch offices. Continue Reading
-
Opinion
06 Sep 2018
NVMe over FC is happening, and it's time to prepare
The extent to which the recently published FC-NVMe standard lowers performance latencies in Fibre Channel SANs will be interesting to watch in the coming months. Continue Reading
-
Tip
27 Aug 2018
Why upgrading to a Gen 6 Fibre Channel network is a good idea
Upgrading to a next-gen Fibre Channel network provides the added performance needed to meet the demands of evolving technologies and workloads, along with other benefits. Continue Reading
-
Tip
31 Jul 2018
Storage networking technologies explained
Make sure you know the differences among network fabrics, such as Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand, before making decisions about your storage network infrastructure. Continue Reading
-
Tip
20 Jul 2018
Storage Spaces Direct requirements you need to know about
Microsoft's architecture uses commodity hardware to create highly available, software-defined storage. But success depends on following the vendor's rules and recommendations. Continue Reading
-
Feature
12 Jul 2018
Adoption of 32 Gbps Fibre Channel being driven by flash
Flash, along with more and bigger workloads and more demanding applications, is driving businesses to switch from 8 Gbps and 16 Gbps FC to 32 Gbps FC storage environments. Continue Reading
-
News
10 Jul 2018
IBM all-flash diversifies with NVMe-based FlashSystem 9100
IBM FlashSystem 9100 scales to 32 PB of all-flash storage in a standard rack. IBM guarantees consistent latency of 350 microseconds and 100 million IOPS per four-way cluster. Continue Reading
-
News
10 May 2018
Hitachi VSP boosts performance and analytics
Hitachi Vantara outfits new Virtual Storage Platform models with more and faster processors and memory, adds midrange arrays, but makes no NVMe promises yet. Continue Reading
-
News
07 May 2018
All-flash and hybrid HPE Nimble Storage arrays get updates
HPE enhances its Nimble all-flash arrays with support for NVMe and storage-class memory. Additionally, the vendor collapses its hybrid systems into one product line featuring deduplication. Continue Reading
-
News
01 May 2018
Dell EMC all-flash PowerMax replaces VMAX, injects NVMe
Dell EMC rebrands its high-end, all-flash VMAX system as PowerMax, which is packed with NVMe flash and inline data reduction. A single system scales to 4 PB, with an onboard AI tiering engine. Continue Reading
-
News
26 Apr 2018
Cisco MDS FC Director switches expand with eye on NVMe
Networking giant Cisco adds two MDS FC Director switches for small and medium-sized businesses. The vendor said it wants to speed transition to 32 Gbps FC for NVMe flash. Continue Reading
-
News
10 Apr 2018
Broadcom preps for NVMe over Fibre Channel with Brocade gear
Broadcom ships its first Brocade FC switching products and updates SAN management for NVMe with the goal of making Fibre Channel the fabric of choice for NVMe storage. Continue Reading
- 03 Apr 2018
-
Feature
03 Apr 2018
SAN purchase and deployment criteria by the numbers
Capacity and application needs drive businesses to deploy new storage area network systems, while criteria such as number of LUNs and multipathing are key to purchasing decisions. Continue Reading
-
Definition
22 Mar 2018
bad block
A bad block is an area of storage media that is no longer reliable for storing and retrieving data because it has been physically damaged or corrupted. Continue Reading
-
News
08 Mar 2018
Nexsan arrays 'ARM' national lab with redundant disk storage
Nexsan Unity disk arrays are based on a dual-controller NST platform. Argonne National Lab uses the storage for continuous operations in inhospitable environments. Continue Reading
-
Feature
11 Feb 2018
Excelero NVMesh 1.1
Startup's NVMesh software virtualizes nonvolatile memory express-based storage and lets applications access pooled storage resources at high speed and low latency. Continue Reading
-
Feature
11 Feb 2018
Infinidat InfiniBox 3.0
InfiniBox 3.0 stores data on disk, deploying a small amount of flash as an acceleration tier. Its caching algorithm ensures the hottest data is on the fastest storage media. Continue Reading
-
Definition
24 Jan 2018
AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface)
Advanced Host Controller Interface, or AHCI, is a technical standard for an interface that enables software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices. Continue Reading
-
News
22 Jan 2018
Pure Storage FlashStack is recycler's renewable resource
Food waste recycler Valley Proteins chose Pure Storage's all-flash converged infrastructure to replace Dell EMC VNX-Cisco UCS for 24 TB of usable storage with Cohesity backup. Continue Reading
-
News
08 Jan 2018
IT DR planning helps Frost Museum of Science weather Irma
The Frost Museum of Science in Miami braced for Hurricane Irma with a solidified DR planning, storage and data center infrastructure, and it suffered minimal damage from the storm. Continue Reading
-
Feature
05 Jan 2018
Top five solid-state, cloud storage tips of 2017
In 2017, SearchStorage readers cared most about SSD lifespan, 3D XPoint technology and the difference between SAN and NAS. Check out our most-read articles of the year here. Continue Reading
-
News
04 Jan 2018
Reduxio Systems' storage wows human resources specialist
Reduxio HX550 hybrid arrays provide primary storage with native data protection for CPP's talent management software, which includes a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment. Continue Reading
-
News
20 Nov 2017
Infinidat embeds SAN, NAS replication in InfiniBox R4
Infinidat's software upgrade eschews SCSI in favor of custom IP-based replication protocol. The vendor claims InfiniBox R4 delivers target writes at sub-400-millisecond latency. Continue Reading
-
News
31 Oct 2017
Violin Systems CEO Abbasi says profits coming in 2018
All-flash pioneer Violin emerges from bankruptcy; 2018 plans call for profits, acquisition, NVMe deployments and software-defined scalability. Continue Reading
-
News
30 Oct 2017
Cisco telemetry data gets streamed from MDS 9700 32G modules
Cisco SAN telemetry sensors capture insight on network fabrics to aid capacity and infrastructure management. The FC feature provides real-time instrumentation analytics. Continue Reading
-
Definition
17 Oct 2017
SATA Express (SATAe)
SATA Express (SATAe or Serial ATA Express) is a bus interface to connect storage devices to a computer motherboard, supporting SATA and PCI Express protocols simultaneously. Continue Reading
-
Tip
13 Oct 2017
Gen 6 Fibre Channel helps support flash, but lacks adoption
Sixth generation Fibre Channel has the potential to solve fabric-level bottlenecks, but companies tend to choose Ethernet because it has evolved more rapidly. Continue Reading
-
Feature
06 Sep 2017
How NVMe over Fabrics will change the storage environment
Expect NVMe to supplant SCSI and SAS protocols for SSD storage and NVMe over Fabrics to find a place in high-end networking deployments for transporting data. Continue Reading
-
Feature
02 Aug 2017
HDD vs. SSD: Is there room for disk in a solid-state world?
Although SSD vs. HDD speed is vastly different, for the foreseeable future, hard disks will have a place in our increasingly solid-state and even DRAM-centered data centers. Continue Reading
-
Answer
25 Jul 2017
How do deduplication and compression compare to RAID erasure coding?
RAID 5 and RAID 6 erasure coding, deduplication and compression are similar but distinct concepts that reduce data and maintain storage capacity in virtualized environments. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
19 Jul 2017
Broadcom-Brocade deal delayed, with ‘no assurances’
The $5.9 billion Broadcom-Brocade acquisition has been delayed 30 days, which may turn into a 75-day delay. That's if the deal happens at all. SAN switching vendor Brocade Tuesday evening said the ... Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
03 Jul 2017
Toshiba says enterprise demand remains for 15,000 rpm HDD
Tape isn't dead, and neither are 15,000 rpm enterprise hard disk drives. Not yet, at least. Toshiba recently began shipping a new AL14SX Series of 15,000 rpm HDD products designed for ... Continue Reading
-
Definition
26 Jun 2017
hybrid hard drive (HHD)
A hybrid hard drive (HHD), sometimes known as a solid-state hybrid drive (SSHD), is a mass storage device that combines a conventional hard disk drive and a NAND flash module. Continue Reading
-
Feature
07 Jun 2017
Multiprotocol unified storage systems poised for growth
With support for block, file or both types of data on the same device, unified storage architecture is a flexible storage option for the modern data center. Continue Reading
- 07 Jun 2017
-
Photo Story
30 May 2017
Speeds of storage networking technologies rise as flash use spikes
Speeds of storage networking technologies are rising as faster flash storage is gaining adoption, giving IT organizations more options to meet their performance needs. Continue Reading
-
News
25 May 2017
HPE flash upgrade covers 3PAR, MSA, new Nimble array
Hewlett Packard Enterprise previews flash upgrades to 3PAR StoreServe and hybrid MSA systems, plus its first Nimble Storage array for reusing backup and copy data. Continue Reading
-
Feature
04 May 2017
Scalability drives SAN market growth
Better performing, more scalable and capacious storage area networks are required for ever-growing amounts of unstructured data, demanding applications and big data analytics. Continue Reading
- 04 May 2017
-
News
02 May 2017
X-IO storage pivots to the edge with NVMe-based Axellio
New storage strategy for X-IO centers on Axellio appliance with FabricXpress architecture. NVMe flash atop a PCIe edge storage switch allows analytics as data is ingested. Continue Reading
-
News
13 Apr 2017
Persistent container storage vendors take center stage
Portworx expands persistent storage features with PX-Enterprise upgrade. Virtuozzo Storage adds erasure coding to file and block, while StorageOS makes beta available. Continue Reading
-
News
11 Apr 2017
Cisco gets MDS 9700 ready for 32-gig FC storage
Cisco 6 FC storage module brings 32 Gbps support across MDS 9700 director family. Cisco and partners certify UCS C-Series servers for 32 Gbps-ready host bus adapters. Continue Reading
-
Opinion
03 Apr 2017
Secondary data storage takes center stage
Once considered a necessary evil, secondary storage systems are now providing much more than just backup protection. Continue Reading
- 03 Apr 2017
-
Blog Post
28 Mar 2017
ZeroStack gives Intelligent Cloud Platform Nimble back-end
ZeroStack's "private cloud in a box" software is now available on Nimble Storage boxes. The vendors this week launched a joint partnership to sell ZeroStack Intelligent Cloud Platform software on ... Continue Reading
-
News
28 Mar 2017
Entry-level Brocade FC switch enables NVMe flash fabric
New Brocade SAN switch turns Fibre Channel into NVMe fabric for all-flash storage. The G610 device is targeted at converged infrastructure, small SANs and rack-based flash servers. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
23 Mar 2017
New Drobo NAS eyes home business, department workgroups
Low-end NAS specialist Drobo is pushing further down market, launching a performance-oriented hybrid NAS aimed at small businesses and distributed collaboration. The five-bay 5N2 Drobo NAS is a ... Continue Reading
-
News
15 Mar 2017
Bumpy ride predicted as HPE storage absorbs Nimble SANs
Merging the Nimble Storage product line with HPE gear and engineering teams creates overlap and competition for its R&D budget. Other storage startups see an opening. Continue Reading
-
E-Zine
03 Mar 2017
The state of flash storage performance
All-flash arrays have virtually eliminated flash storage performance issues, for now. But applications and user expectations will eventually catch up. Innovations in flash technology -- such as nonvolatile memory express and storage-class memory (flash DIMM) -- promise to keep solid-state storage ahead of the curve, however. We discuss these technologies and more as we explore the current and future states of flash storage performance.
DevOps allows developers to rapidly create, develop, amend and deploy applications using Agile methodologies. DevOps resources, including storage, are consumed differently, though, taking more of a cloud-like approach.
Security and compliance concerns are big obstacles to public cloud storage adoption. Reliability, data movement and poor application performance, frequently from irregular spikes in network latency, are other important caveats. We provide tips on how to overcome these and other issues.
Continue Reading -
Opinion
03 Mar 2017
A cure for secondary data storage services blues
Effective user-centric data storage management eases copy data management and object storage uptake while enabling secondary storage services to evolve. Continue Reading
-
Feature
03 Mar 2017
SAN arrays maintain primary data storage dominance, for now
Solid-state flash is the most sought-after technology for primary storage, as storage area networks remain the main focus of increasing capacity for most enterprises. Continue Reading
-
Feature
03 Mar 2017
The state of flash storage systems
Making flash storage performance even faster has little to do with the media itself and more to do with the storage infrastructure that surrounds it. Continue Reading
-
Opinion
03 Mar 2017
Data storage infrastructure starts with science-fiction inspiration
Find out what happens when you take a cue from an old science-fiction movie and build an 'interocitor' that becomes its own storage infrastructure. Continue Reading
- 03 Mar 2017
-
News
23 Feb 2017
Nexsan Unity adds compliance archive appliance
Nexsan Unity arrays integrate optional secure compliance archive for petabytes of unstructured data. Data files written to primary storage are immediately copied to the archive. Continue Reading
-
Feature
01 Feb 2017
Future of the Ethernet drive may hinge on NVMe over Ethernet
Despite their debut two years ago, drives that connect via Ethernet have been mostly a curiosity. The Ethernet flavor of NVMe over Fabrics may change that. Continue Reading
-
Feature
09 Jan 2017
Top enterprise storage vendors to watch in 2017
Check out our comprehensive forecast of what challenges and opportunities the top enterprise storage vendors are expected to face in the coming year. Continue Reading
-
Definition
21 Sep 2016
partition
Partitioning a hard disk drive is the first step in preparing it for data storage. A disk partition is a carved out logical space used to manage operating systems and files. Continue Reading
-
Definition
15 Aug 2016
parity
Parity is a method of detecting errors in data transmissions between computers, while parity bit and parity checking are used in RAID technology to guard against data loss. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
22 Jul 2016
RDMA over Fabrics: a big step for SSD access
Shared storage access for servers has been the most basic requirement for storage networks. Performance demands for multiple systems accessing data continually increase due to improvements in ... Continue Reading
-
Opinion
06 Jul 2016
NAND flash technology is just the beginning
NAND flash adoption has been as fast as the speed it offers, but faster storage techs such as 3D XPoint and phase-change memory are on their way. Continue Reading
-
Answer
12 Apr 2016
How do RDMA storage systems improve latency reduction?
RDMA technology can help speed up I/O in storage environments by bypassing copy processes in the software stack when data is called up from a system's memory. Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
03 Mar 2016
Brocade VP: Flash spurs coordinated Gen 6 Fibre Channel launch
Brocade, QLogic and Broadcom coordinated this week’s shipments of the first switches and adapters to support Gen 6 Fibre Channel storage networking technology. We caught up with Jack Rondoni, vice ... Continue Reading
-
Feature
23 Oct 2015
Purchasing an enterprise SAN: Top-tier products compared
Expert Jacob Gsoedl drills into eight top-tier enterprise SAN products and how each one performs in seven technical areas. Detailed charts make the information easy to digest. Continue Reading
-
Feature
10 Aug 2015
HUS VM SAN array platform
The Hitachi Unified Storage VM is a storage array designed for enterprise SAN environments requiring high storage capacities. Continue Reading
-
Answer
29 Jun 2015
What's the best way to protect against HDD failure?
HDD failure can put bytes of data at risk. Is multi-copy mirroring or erasure coding the more efficient data protection approach? Continue Reading
-
Buyer's Guide
29 May 2015
SAN basics: All the tools you need to purchase a storage-area network
Whether you're purchasing a SAN for the first time or looking to upgrade, this guide walks you through the buying process from start to finish. Continue Reading
-
Definition
13 May 2015
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
Definition: The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is a set of parallel interface standards used to attach disk drives and other peripherals to a computer. Continue Reading
-
Feature
30 Apr 2015
HP MSA 2040 storage array
The HP MSA 2040 is a rack-mountable modular storage array for SAN environments that includes increased support for virtualization. Continue Reading
-
Feature
30 Apr 2015
EMC VMAX Series storage arrays
The EMC VMAX is a family of SAN arrays designed for enterprise environments requiring large amounts of storage. Continue Reading
-
Feature
27 Mar 2015
Hewlett-Packard 3PAR StoreServ 7000 Series Storage Arrays
The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 series is a line of storage arrays designed for enterprise SAN environments. Continue Reading
-
Feature
11 Feb 2015
Nimble CS700
Nimble Storage adds a higher-capacity model to its iSCSI hybrid arrays, plus an all-flash shelf to bulk up performance. Continue Reading
-
Feature
02 Sep 2014
SAN storage systems purchases driven by capacity, performance
Anticipated year-over-year capacity growth of 24% and the need to boost the performance of existing applications is driving new SAN storage systems. Continue Reading
-
Definition
18 Apr 2014
bit rot
Bit rot is the slow deterioration in the performance and integrity of data stored on storage media. It is also known by the names bit decay, data rot, data decay and silent corruption. Continue Reading
-
Guide
18 Mar 2014
Examining the future of the RAID volume
Expert Jon Toigo provides a set of tips to answer key questions regarding RAID's place in today's storage world, and whether it will be replaced. Continue Reading
-
Tip
18 Feb 2014
Three key strategies to prevent RAID failure
In this tip, analyst Jon Toigo shares several ways storage admins can proactively prevent the failure of RAID arrays. Continue Reading
-
Feature
19 Dec 2013
Figuring out when 16 Gbps Fibre Channel storage networking makes sense
Moving to 16 Gbps FC makes sense for IT shops with new and heavily virtualized servers, solid-state storage and test firm president advises. Continue Reading
-
Guide
24 Jun 2013
LUN storage: Working with a SAN's logical unit numbers
This guide provides a complete picture of LUN implementations, including best practices for LUN mapping and management. Continue Reading
-
Feature
13 Feb 2013
Tegile Zebi HA2800 Storage Array
The Tegile Zebi HA2800 multiprotocol array can be used as an all-flash system or in front of a pool of hard drives as a hybrid array. Continue Reading
-
Feature
13 Feb 2013
NexGen Storage Inc. n5-150 Storage System
IT admins using the NexGen Storage n5-150 Storage System can guarantee performance to each app and isolate workloads from one another on the SAN. Continue Reading
-
Podcast
29 Nov 2012
What you need to know about improving iSCSI performance
Storage expert Dennis Martin discusses how technologies like Data Center Bridging, CHAP, IPsec and iSCSI offload adapters affect iSCSI performance. Continue Reading
-
Tip
06 Jun 2012
Citrix StorageLink integrates SAN with virtualization environment
Find out what benefits Citrix StorageLink delivers to Citrix XenServer, such as access to advanced features on the storage array, offloading of storage operations to the array, and more. Continue Reading
-
Feature
10 Feb 2012
Brocade Communications Systems Inc. 1860 Fabric Adapter
The Brocade 1860 Fabric Adapter can partition individual physical adapters into as many as 16 virtual HBAs or virtual NICs with flexible bandwidth allocation. Continue Reading
-
Feature
10 Feb 2012
Brocade Communications Systems Inc. 6510 SAN Switch
The Brocade 6510 SAN Switch has industry-first 16 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) support, flexible port configuration and full-duplex 768 Gbps aggregate port throughput. Continue Reading
-
Tip
08 Nov 2011
I/O performance in need of a fix
Despite technological advances, unacceptable I/O performance could hold the entire industry back. Here are some solutions that have materialized. Continue Reading
-
Podcast
25 Jul 2011
What you need to know about SMB SANs
Marc Staimer discusses what to look for in an SMB SANs this Q&A and recent developments in SMB SAN technology. Continue Reading
-
Feature
12 Oct 2010
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) implementation case studies
Learn how three firms tackled management issues in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) implementation; case studies detail potential turf wars, restructuring. Continue Reading