• Introduction to Storage Networking ……………………………. 15
o What is Storage Networking About? …………………… 16
o Evolution or Revolution? ………………………………… 20
o Business Needs ………………………………………….. 27
o The New Datacenter …………………………………….. 32
o Storage Consolidation …………………………………… 37
o Server Clustering ………………………………………… 41
o Storage Networking Applications ………………………. 44
• Storage Networking Architectures ……………………………… 57
o Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) …………………………. 58
o Network-Attached Storage (NAS) ………………………. 62
o Storage Area Network (SAN) …………………………… 66
o Comparing Solutions ……………………………………. 70
o Storage Transport Protocols …………………………….. 80
o Network Metrics …………………………………………… 93
• Storage Components …………………………………………….. 105
o Disk Physical Characteristics ……………………………. 106
o Tape Physical Characteristics …………………………… 113
• I/O Interfaces ……………………………………………………… 123
o Overview ………………………………………………….. 124
o Parallel ATA ………………………………………………. 127
o Serial ATA ………………………………………………… 132
o Parallel SCSI ……………………………………………… 134
o Serial Attached SCSI ……………………………………. 144
o Interface Comparisons ………………………………….. 152