SAN Consolidation Solution

SAN Consolidation

SAN Consolidation refers to the activities associated with increasing the number of devices (servers, storage arrays, tape drives, etc.) that have access to a SAN infrastructure while simplifying existing SAN topology layouts. If the number of devices connected to a SAN is increased, the cost and provisioning of storage resources becomes more flexible, leading to a reduction in cost caused mainly by an increase in storage usage and increased management efficiencies. The simplification of SAN topology layouts comes from either connecting smaller SAN islands to form larger connected fabrics, or from using newer, intelligent fabric virtualization technologies, such as Cisco Virtual SANs (VSANs) embedded in the MDS 9000 SAN Switch Family, to build virtual fabrics on top of a common physical fabric to reduce physical SAN build-outs, and thus, lower costs.

Solutions incorporating the Cisco MDS 9000 Family enable storage professionals to achieve consolidation by providing highly scalable intelligent Storage Area Networking (SAN) platforms that incorporate intelligent services providing:

Multiprotocol capability including Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and FCIP
Embedded multiprotocol fabric management
Embedded advanced fabric troubleshooting and diagnostic tools
Secure SAN deployments including role-based management and extensive fabric security services

Along with its storage networking partners, Cisco Systems delivers industry-leading technology helping enterprises to implement solutions that consolidate SAN resources, for a more easily managed, highly-available and scaleable, cost-effective storage network.

End-User Concerns

To realize the advantages in SAN Consolidation, SAN administrators must first address numerous concerns before making a decision for a change to their current environment. They also must get viable answers to important questions in an effort to address these concerns. Cisco Systems storage networking solutions deliver industry leading, intelligent, multi-protocol services that help end-users address these key concerns:

Performance and Scalability
- Will the solution be able to grow with business needs? How is my investment protected by choosing this solution?
- Does the new infrastructure have the power to support multiple applications?
Migration
- Will migration be disruptive to the applications running in my network?
- How do I address the complexity of how to do it?
Availability
- If one application goes down, will others be impacted? (I am nervous that I now have “all eggs in one basket.”)
Security
- Multiple applications now reside on the same physical fabric. How do I ensure each application is secured from all the others?
- Multiple administrators have responsibilities to manage on the same physical fabric. How can I ensure secure separation among administrator responsibilities?
- How does this consolidated solution help me with compliance and regulations?
Manageability
- How do I manage and troubleshoot multiple applications?
Total cost of ownership (TCO)
- Will I save money by consolidating SANs (that is, operating expenses [OpEx] and capital expenditures [CapEx])?

Hierarchical Navigation

SAN Consolidation Solution

Introduction

SAN Consolidation

End-User Concerns

Solutions