DATA, NETWORK & APPLICATION MANAGEMENT

In general, storage solutions refer to different methods to save and archive our data from a computer to an external device or cloud in optical, electromagnetic, digital, or any other format. It is evident to everyone that data loss can happen due to a simple technology glitch, which can be drastic for any business. Hence protecting users’ and companies’ data is crucial in running a business. It also helps to ensure the data can be recovered at any time.

Storage is the reservoir that holds your digital data without power. Storage Area Networks (SAN) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) are the network-based storage solutions you can look into for your enterprise needs.

Storage Area Network SAN: This uses Fibre channel connectivity and stores data at the block level. It provides users with shared access, thus allowing multiple clients to access files at the same time. These are not limited by TCP/IP protocols or local area network LAN restrictions, so SAN solutions provide the highest access speed for media and mission-critical stored data.

Due to its complexity and high cost, SAN is ideal for large corporations. Another advantage of SAN is the fair and prioritized bandwidth usage across the network, which provides high speed and low latency.

Network Attached Storage NAS: This uses standard Ethernet connectivity and accesses data as files. It is super simple to set up and deploy, which is why NAS solutions are frequently used in home offices or small businesses.

NAS volumes appear as network-mounted volumes on the system. The files are contained in one or more storage drives, often arranged into logical redundant storage containers or RAID. The NAS features of ready access to files (local and remote), data redundancy, the ability to replace and upgrade hard drives in the system, and the availability of other services, such as automatic backups, are what make NAS solutions attractive to a lot of small and medium-sized corporations. And of course, the price is highly attractive too.

Both SAN and NAS offer excellent expandability for your business.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM STORAGE SOLUTIONS?

Think of NAS as working with an external hard drive on your network. In this perspective, SAN is like a network of connected external hard drives. A bit more complex to work with. Which begs the question – how big is your corporation?

SANs are used mainly by businesses, data centers, and other large organizations, while NASs are ideal for others. So basically, the type of storage solution you choose for your corporation depends on the size of your corporation. That’s relatively simple to figure out.

However, choosing a suitable device can be a challenging task. How much storage do you need? How do you choose the right storage solutions? Do you virtualize? How much do you need redundancy in your storage solutions? Most importantly, how are your storage systems backed up and ready to failover?

Price is always a significant deciding factor, but to choose the proper storage solution, you need to look at the capacity, security, power consumption, speed, RAM, and durability features. Also equally important are those high-tech technical specifications, so it’s best to seek an expert’s opinion.

HOW IVALUE CAN HELP?

With iValue as your trusted partner, we can now navigate the different storage solutions available in the market. We can manage the complexity of your storage solutions, thus optimizing costs and streamlining support.

We help you decide the most appropriate storage systems for your enterprise by considering: 

• What is the kind of data you store – which is the first question to ask. Depending on whether your data is structured, unstructured, or a mixture of both, we help you decide what you need as a storage solution. 
• How much storage you need – for today, and for the future
• How your storage systems are linked to different applications and external systems, which decide what kind of storage you need – between on-premise, private cloud, public cloud, or a hybrid cloud system

Our team of experts can simplify your data storage challenges with an integrated backup and disaster recovery approach. We can help you strike that perfect balance of performance and economics with the right storage solutions.