Industry Perspective: Revolutionary Approach to Network Storage for the New Millennium

Traditionally, schools have solved their evolving networking requirements by connecting shared peripheral devices such as storage systems and printers to general-purpose file servers. Such "server-centric" configurations force clients to access data and network resources indirectly through the network file server. This circuitous method for accessing data and network resources places an additional burden on the server, resulting in degraded network performance and significant latency wait times for network users. In the past, these deficiencies were mere annoyances that users expected when accessing the network. In today's fast-paced climate, however, where network users need immediate access to electronic mail and Internet- and Web-based resources, these network obstacles can mean the difference between success and failure. As a result, an increasing number of schools are migrating from their current server centric configurations to intelligent stand-alone network attached storage devices (NASDs). The Data-Centric Model Educational workstations typically connect to some type of network such as the Internet, a local-area network (LAN) or a wide-area network (WAN), and access shared data residing on numerous repositories. Conventional data access in these environments is based on a server-centric model, where client workstations can access a number of large-capacity storage systems on the shared network indirectly, through general-purpose file servers. Because the server-centric model routes data and resources through the network server, workstation requests for data are often met with significant lag times. To overcome these inherent inefficiencies, an alternative, data-centric model was developed. Unlike the server-centric model, the data-centric model allows intelligent stand-alone NASDs to connect directly to the network. As a result, client workstations can access data immediately from a NASD, without having to go through a file server. The result is significantly faster response times. While the data-centric model offers significant advantages over the server-centric model for both users and network administrators, it also presents a number of implementation challenges. In spite of these challenges, the NASDs used in the data-centric paradigm consistently outperform their counterparts in the server-centric paradigm. When planning a data-centric migration, the following issues should be considered before purchasing a NASD solution. 1) Heterogeneity of Clients. It is common for an organization's network to support a variety of disparate workstations. For example, the accounting department for a school might use IBM-compatible computers, while the graphics department uses Apple Macintosh computers and the engineering department uses Unix workstations. While these divergent workstations use different hardware, operating systems and applications, they all need to communicate with the network server and with each other. Therefore, the NASD must be able to address workstations, independent of their hardware and software platforms and without requiring software or hardware modifications. To accommodate these requirements, the NASD must support a variety of networking protocols (such as NFS, NetWare, LAN Manager and AppleShare). 2) Performance. The NASD must provide sufficient throughput to satisfy as many network users as possible, with minimum latency. 3) Reliability. Although cross-platform support and high performance are important factors, they mean very little if the storage system is frequently down for repair. That is why reliability should be a key factor to consider when purchasing a high-capacity NASD. …