• Reduce LAN traffic • Improve backup performance • Reduce impact of backup window • Share tape libraries • Reduce redundant backup hardware • Simplify administration and reduce TCO
FC attached tape library
Backup server
SAN storage
LAN-free backup takes backup traffic off the LAN: In this backup model, the tape device is attached directly to the SAN, either via a native SAN interface or via a gateway. The server takes data from disk over the SAN, and sends it to tape over the SAN.
The SAN is much more efficient than the LAN at handling large data flows, so faster, more efficient tape libraries become viable. A smaller number of tape drives can be shared between many servers, so the cost of these high-end tape libraries can be shared over several servers and applications.
At this point our backup server will still exist, our media server will still exist, our backup client still exists and they can all run in the same machine. If it all runs in the same machine we can read data off our disk, and write it out to tape. It stays on our Storage Area Network. It doesn’t go over the LAN that we are using for client server traffic. So at this point the LAN is no longer the bottleneck.