Want to know how to create a $400 SAN?

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MIKE KARP ON STORAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE
09/20/05
Today's focus: Want to know how to create a $400 SAN?

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* What you get when you attach together gear from Netgear and
Zetera
* Links related to Storage in the Enterprise
* Featured reader resource
_______________________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________

Today's focus: Want to know how to create a $400 SAN?

By Mike Karp

It turns out that there may be something pretty useful in store
(sorry about the pun... but only a little) for smaller
businesses in the area of networked storage. Equally important,
it may have some profound implications for remote offices in the
very near future, and for enterprise storage applications not
long after that. Let me tell you about something I have recently
found. For about a month now I've been playing with a device in
my home office that gives me a $400 storage-area network.
Really? Really.

First, let's calibrate our expectations. What I've got running
is certainly not a high performance environment such as what I
would see from a SAN running a McDATA switch and some HP arrays,
for example, but then what I am running also costs a fraction of
1% of such SANs. What I do have is a virtualized storage
environment spread over two devices that gives me mirrored
storage accessible from any of the nodes on my home office
network and which operates at the bandwidth capacity of my home
office LAN.

Netgear, probably best known as a provider of home networking
gear such as wireless routers, has a SAN appliance (the
MicroSAN) that costs $150. Put a couple of drives in there - in
my case two Seagate 250G byte 7200 RPM drives (cost, $235 off
the Internet), connect it to my existing Ethernet router, and I
now have a quarter-terabyte of mirrored, sharable storage.

A piece of software called Local Storage Manager gives me the
ability to add and reduce capacity to the storage pool, mirror
partitions, and perform other basic management functions. I've
had multiple applications access the same file, including
streaming video to several clients, all hassle-free.

Local Storage Manager actually comes from Zetera, an Irvine,
Calif.-based start-up that provides Netgear with an appliance
the size of a small toaster. With a little bit of imagination,
the heat sinks on the top even make the device look like a
toaster. I'm now prejudiced, I guess. I've used the toaster as
my metaphor for an appliance for years. Appliances after all
should be easy to install (15 minutes maximum installation time
- otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, it's just a bundle), and
easy to operate. Looks like Zetera has gone me one better, and
turned my metaphor into reality.

This particular configuration is really intended for home use -
probably for home networks where families want to share TiVo
data, pictures, videos and so forth. Not unexpectedly then, the
device has some limitations for business environments. It cannot
co-exist with my Cisco VPN, for example, which steps on the
Zetera virtualization software. The Zetera folks tell me that
the office version (likely to manage many more than the two
disks in my early, home version) will have this capability along
with additional management capabilities. Zetera declined to
publicly say when the office version will be released.

This is all pretty interesting stuff. Zetera has produced what
is essentially a switchless SAN, or if you prefer,
"controller-less" IP storage. Theoretically, this should be able
to scale well into the range where it becomes attractive for
inclusion for companies building systems for enterprise storage.
It will be interesting to see where this goes. I'll keep you
informed.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstoragealert6931>

2. DemoFall preview <http://www.networkworld.com/nlstorage7335>

3. EBay bid shows promise of VoIP
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstorage7336>

4. The rise of the IT architect
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstoragealert7268>

5. Volunteers rebuild Gulf Coast communications with wireless
nets <http://www.networkworld.com/nlstoragealert7266>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Mike Karp

Mike Karp is senior analyst with Enterprise Management
Associates, focusing on storage, storage management and the
methodology that brings these issues into the marketplace. He
has spent more than 20 years in storage, systems management and
telecommunications. Mike can be reached via e-mail
<mailto:mkarp@enterprisemanagement.com>.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Hitachi
CAN YOU HANDLE ALL THE DATA COMING YOUR WAY?

Small and mid-size businesses are confronted with storage
challenges such as escalating data growth Hitachi Data Systems
brings high-end functionality midrange modular storage, priced
within the reach of SMB customers. Download our free white paper.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115573
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ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Storage newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/stor/index.html

Breaking storage news and analysis:
http://www.networkworld.com/topics/storage.html
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Silver bullets for application acceleration?

Companies want integrated solutions. Packaged solutions that
answer their key problems more or less out of the box. See how
you can improve the performance of Web-based applications to
users wherever they are.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=114717
_______________________________________________________________
FEATURED READER RESOURCE

IS IT THE NETWORK OR THE STORAGE THAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Midsize and larger businesses often find their IT topology has
become a complex mix of servers, networks and storage systems.
Many of these companies also route long-haul traffic over
fiber-based networks - metropolitan-area networks, WANs and
private optical networks. Who's responsible when a
storage-related problem occurs on a fiber network? For more,
click here:

<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstorage7101nlstoragealert7269>
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