Intel Storage Solution Implementation Guide

Implementation Guide for Data Center Storage

•  SAN
•  DAS
•  NAS

SAN

Number of Employees

Large Enterprise 5,000+

Enterprise 1,000-4,999

Small & Medium Enterprise 100 to 999

Small & Medium Business 10 to 99

Small Office/Home Office 1 to 9

SAN	Definition	Storage Area Network (SAN) is a specialized network designed to connect storage devices to servers on behalf of a larger network of users. SANs generally reside in the data centers of the servers they support, but they may also be placed in remote locations for backup and archival storage. SAN is the primary choice that Enterprise IT managers make for their storage needs. SANs usually reside on a separate network from a LAN to isolate storage related traffic so to not burden client networks with storage backup traffic.
	Business Benefits	Improved business operations through fast and reliablie and continuous data availability; Provides cost savings via improved asset utilization; Flexibility (scaleable) to meet needs as business grows; Enhances productivity of storage administrators; Reduces risk from disaster/data loss;
	Typical Use	Supporting Bandwidth-intensive applications; supporting mission-critical applications; storing rich media assets; supporting transaction intensive applications; storing large databases
	Implementation Guidance	SAN may have a high initial cost; SAN require specialized IT skill set if Fiber Channel is used; larger implementations can be complex to manage.
	Network Interface	FibreChannel	FibreChannel	FibreChannel, iSCSI	FibreChannel, iSCSI	iSCSI
	Disk Interface	FibreChannel	FibreChannel, SAS	FibreChannel, SAS, SATA	SATA	SATA
	Number of Disks	64-2048	16-240	16 to 64	4 to 16	n/a
	Storage Array Processor	Intel® Xeon® processor dual processor	Intel® Xeon® processor dual processor	Intel® Pentium® Processor, Intel® I/O Processor	Intel® I/O Processor, Intel® Celeron M Processor	n/a

DAS

Number of Employees

Large Enterprise 5,000+

Enterprise 1,000-4,999

Small & Medium Enterprise 100 to 999

Small & Medium Business 10 to 99

Small Office/Home Office 1 to 9

DAS	Definition	Direct Attached Storage (DAS) is one or more hard drives connected to the CPU via a bus and housed in the computer enclosure or in an adjacent cabinet. DAS may be contrasted with networked storage which includes both NAS and SAN.
	Business Benefits	Low cost of implementing.
	IT Benefits	As storage requirements grow both in capacity and manageability, the DAS model can be increasingly unmanageable and cost prohibitive.
	Typical Use	Server application storage; Data backup; Data archiving
	Implementation Guidance	Creates stranded capacity or islands of data not shareable across servers; data is unavailable when the server is down; expensive because each server must be administered separately; doesn't offer manageability features corporations require; storage capacity limitations; growth cumbersome when DAS at capacity; server bears load of processing applications slowing performance. DAS is still the most widespread form of storage, but as data stores grow IT managers are looking to more scaleable and manageable networked storage solutions.
	Intel components (On HBA, NIC or Motherboard	Intel® Xeon™ Processor (server), Intel I/O Processors on HBAs or ROMB	Intel® Xeon™ Processor (server), Intel I/O Processors on HBAs or ROMB	Intel® Xeon™ Processor (server), Intel I/O Processors on HBAs or ROMB	Intel® Pentium® Processor/Intel® Xeon™ Processor	Intel® Celeron™ Processor
	Number of Disks	1-6 in Chassis or JBOD Array	1-6 in Chassis or JBOD Array	1-6 in Chassis or JBOD Array	1-6 in Chassis or JBOD Array	1-6 in Chassis or JBOD Array
	Disk Interface	Fibre Channel, SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI and ATA (SAS and SATA)	Fibre Channel, SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI and ATA (SAS and SATA)	Fibre Channel, SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI and ATA (SAS and SATA)	SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI and ATA (SAS and SATA)	SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI and ATA (SAS and SATA)

NAS

Number of Employees

Large Enterprise 5,000+

Enterprise 1,000-4,999

Small & Medium Enterprise 100 to 999

Small & Medium Business 10 to 99

Small Office/Home Office 1 to 9

NAS	Definition	Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a storage appliance that is attached to a local area network and allows heterogeneous workstations or servers to store and transfer files using the NFS (Unix, Linux) and CIFS (Windows) protocols. NAS is popular across all segments, but has found a stronger presence in SMB and smaller Enterprises. It is not uncommon for large enterprise IT departments deploy a "NAS head" or NAS Gateway that allows them to use part of a storage array dedicated to the SAN (block based) as a NAS (file based) appliance.
	Business Benefits	Easy to install and maintain; eases IT management complexity and cost; Enhanced productivity though data availability to clients throughout the network; Improved application and file serving performance over DAS
	IT Benefits	Pooled storaged improves disk utilization and lowers administration costs; Easy to set up and maintain; Viewable by heterogeneous servers; Continuous availability of data to clients; Flexibility to change storage w/o disrupting users; Uses existing Ethernet network; Higher performance than DAS in many cases; ideal storage solution for SMB, branch offices or small workgroups
	Typical Use	File Server, document management and messaging applications; Networked storage in SMB and Branch Offices; Near line storage back up that is more available than tape
	Implementation Guidance	Not optimal for large files when time is critical. Large database driven applications may not perform well.
	Network Interface	Ethernet
	Disk Interface	FibreChannel, SAS, SATA	FibreChannel, SAS, SATA	SAS, SATA	SATA	SATA
	Number of Disks	128-256	64-128	16-64	4 to 16	1 to 4
	Host Processor	intel® Xeon® processor dual processor	Intel® Xeon® processor dual processor	Intel® Pentium® Processor	Intel® I/O Processors, Intel® Celeron® M Processor	Intel® Network Processor, Intel® I/O Processor, Intel® Celeron M Processor