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The FAN has Started Spinning
With unstructured data like e-mails, documents and even MP3 files growing out of control in every organization, a File Area Network (FAN) might be the only way out
Manu Priyam
Friday, August 10, 2007
Monsoon has already hit the Indian shores and so, who needs a fan now. This
is what I thought when I first came across File Area Network, or FAN for short.
I thought of it as yet another marketing-driven initiative; yet another bottle
to sell the same old wine. I kept on overlooking it for almost a year, but time
and again, it came back chasing me and as an even bigger lump of mass.
Therefore, I decided to bust it right here, before it comes to me again and
rolls over me. If you are also one of those who are being perplexed by this
jargon, please be a part of this busting. We'll do it together.
Need for file management
There is so much of unstructured data, generated in any enterprise today,
that traditional approaches to managing, storing and retrieving them have
started hitting the wall. Ask any data center manager and he'll say that file
management is one of the top priorities for him to look after and that it needs
an immediate panacea. On the other hand, we are also seeing concerted efforts by
storage vendors and innovators to drive innovations around management and
control of files.
In the recent past, we've heard about a wide range of new technologies coming
up in this area, including Wide Area File Services (WAFS), WAN optimization and
application acceleration, distributed and clustered file systems, file
virtualization, file or document management software, file classification
software and file data placement and movement controls. So, what all has changed
to make the storage managers look for file-level control over storage and where
and how FAN fits into the story?
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Direct Hit! |
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Applies To: Storage
Managers
USP: Highly improved file services and
better control over unstructured data
Primary Link:
http://www.snia.org
Google Keywords: File Area Networking
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Quite simply, it's the relative criticality of file data that has changed
with time. File-based data is increasingly becoming important, as nearly all
workflow processes today run through a file infrastructure. The growing
importance of data contained in files owes to behavioral changes that have taken
place with time, like we are now-a-days, closing deals on e-mails and minutes of
a Board meeting are being recorded in MP3 format, which are not structured, yet
we are required to keep them. Sometimes for regulatory reasons and on other
occasions for their potential value in future litigation.
Today in an organization, we have unstructured or semi-structured data stored
in these files, as a large portion of its total storage. This data has a
potential to grow at a much rapid rate than structured data. Besides, there is
growing complexity in terms of mixed vendors, platforms and file systems. The
application demands and availability requirements have also increased. This all
simply demands the deployment of advanced file management services.
| Constitution of a FAN
Storage devices:
NAS or SAN
File-serving devices/interfaces: NAS or a NAS gateway, in case of SANs
Namespaces: Ability to organize, present, and store file content for
authorized end clients
File management and control services: Software intelligence to
inter-operate with namespaces, for eg, file virtualization, classification,
de-duplication, WAFS, etc.
End clients: Any platform or computing device
Connectivity: To connect end clients with namespaces |
Sense of déjà vu
With traditional storage, we see a tight coupling of applications with
storage, which has so far been preventing the evolution of storage management
solutions. A FAN unknots these tight bindings and enables advanced storage
management services. It is analogous to SAN, as both talk of a unified pool of
storage resources.
The difference lies only in the fact that it talks of abstracting and
extending the 'area network' concept to a higher layer of the infrastructure,
that is, a file system. SAN replaced physical block storage connections with
logical connections, while FAN replaces physical path names with logical path
names. That means FAN could turn out to be a similar revolution for files, or
may be objects, as SAN was for the block storage.
What's a FAN?
The goal of a FAN is to provide an enterprise-wide intelligent platform for
cost-effective delivery of file information with a better level of file control.
FAN is an umbrella term which refers to an architectural model encompassing
storage devices, file-serving devices and interfaces, namespaces, file
management and control services, end clients and connectivity.
A FAN offers pervasive controls of all file-based information. For this, the
infrastructure maintains an inventory of metadata and content values. This in
turn helps in launching a process as ambitious as Information Lifecycle
Management (ILM), in a true manner.
Regardless of the physical device, it offers file visibility to the user
applications. Intelligent search on unstructured data is possible in case of
FANs. Then, non-disruptive migration, replication and de-duplication of data are
possible features which can be worked out on top of a FAN foundation. This will
result in measurable RoI for file management.
Finally, with all this consolidation, we will also have improved space
utilization and highly improved service levels.
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