Storage Area Network Fundamentals (Cisco Press Networking Technology Series)

A guide to planning, implementing, managing, and using storage area networks to increase the efficiency of your network infrastructure

• Gain in-depth coverage of SAN fundamentals, topologies, implementation and management techniques, and products
• Build and sharpen your troubleshooting skills for data-mining, online transaction processing, imaging, data warehousing, and other highly data-intensive applications
• Understand how to implement the Fibre Channel and iSCSI protocols, which are key to any SAN solution
• Learn current industry implementation and application standards, as well as future advances

During the last decade, a multitude of changes in computing technology and the globalization of business through the Internet have resulted in a tremendous growth in storage requirements. This has forced many organizations around the world to reassess the way they view their storage environment. Many applications, such as e-commerce, imaging, data warehousing, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), fill storage media quickly. Data accessibility and availability for these applications has to be fast and efficient. Clearly, the ever-increasing information access requirements have had a profound effect on most data centers. As a result, many organizations are searching for cost-effective ways to ensure high data availability and reliability.

Storage Area Network Fundamentals presents the benefits of storage area networks (SANs) to corporate users and enables them to deploy SAN technology effectively. Designed as an introduction to SANs, Storage Area Network Fundamentals develops an understanding of SAN basics and shows how to plan, implement, and manage a SAN. This book covers the topologies, protocols, and products required to implement and manage efficient SANs.