The Holy Grail of Network Storage Management

Summary

The Holy Grail of Network Storage Management, by noted IT veteran and author Jon William Toigo, is a comprehensive, vendor-neutral guide to networked storage management. The book gives consumers straight information on the business value of current products and technologies, and describes how to make informed purchases that will help realize current and strategic goals. This book is intended for storage administrators, IT decision-makers and architects, financial investors examining the storage industry, and vendors who are seeking to meet customer requirements with solutions that deliver measurable business value.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations.

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction.

Conspiracy Theory. The Storage Industry: Fear of Standards and Commoditization. Another Industry Concern: The Rise of a Dominant Player. The Road to Unification? Yesterday's Resellers, Tomorrow's Competitors. About This Book. Endnotes.
2. The Data Explosion and Matters of the Disk.

The Data Explosion Myth. Deconstructing the Data Explosion Myth. Fact and Fiction in Networked Storage. From Evolution to Revolution: The Myth of the Fibre Channel SAN. Endnotes.

3. 21st Century Oxymorons: Jumbo Shrimp and Fibre Channel SAN.

SANs and Capacity Allocation Efficiency. The "V" Word. Capacity Utilization Efficiency: Another Grail. What About Management? Conclusion. Endnotes.

4. Sanity Check on IP SANs.

IP SANs and Metcalfe's Law. What, When, and Where ISCSI. Why IP SANs? Conclusion.

5. The Quest for Networked Storage: Many Roads to Rome.

The Zen Riddle of Storage Networking. Block and File. NAS/SAN Hybrids. Conclusion. Endnotes.

6. Making Storage Platforms Smarter.

The Sources of Storage Infrastructure Value. Barriers to Growth in Disk and Consequences for Platform Decision Making. Media Materials Are Key. Capacity Versus Performance and Other Economic Realities. Economic Realities. Back to Architecture. Disk and Array Selection Criteria. Storage Intelligence Begins With Informed and Pragmatic Device Decisions. Endnotes.

7. Virtualization:Still a Dirty Word?

A Brief Overview of Virtualization in IT. SANs and Virtualization. Host Software-Based Virtualization. “In-Band” Virtualization. Out-of-Band Virtualization. Array Controller-Based Virtualization. Are Switches the New Virtualization Platform? Back to Reality. Endnotes.

8. Squeezing Real Value from Storage.

What is Capacity Utilization Efficiency? Hierarchical Storage Management. A Brief Overview of Storage Resource Management Architecture. Product-Centric Management. Infrastructure-Centric or Storage Resource Management (SRM). Application-Centric Management. Data-Centric Storage Management. Not Speculation. In the Absence of a Data-Centric Storage Management Solution. Endnotes.

9. Final Word: Tape is Dead…Maybe.

Data Protection. The Backup Versus Mirror Debate. Tape is Not a Panacea. Mirroring is Not a Silver Bullet. Enhanced Backup Options Exist. Attacking Backup Time. DDT: Not the Pesticide, The Other DDT. Saving Restore Time. The Bottom Line About Bolt-Ons. Endnotes.

10. The Cone of Silence.

A Security Capability for Storage. The Three A's of Security. Which is More Secure: IP or Fibre Channel? Burgeoning Technologies. Storage Encryption. Adapting Other Security Concepts to Storage. Conclusion. Endnotes.

11. Conclusion: Joining the Quest for the Holy Grail.

The Solution is Out There. Professionalism, Pragmatism, and Cosumerism. What is to be Done? Endnotes.

Glossary.

Index.