Government, non-profits, Education and other public sector organizations may greatly benefit from StarWind’s iSCSI SAN software that turns any industry-standard Windows Server into a fault-tolerant, fail-safe iSCSI SAN. StarWind offers special conditions for public sector organizations. More information and contacts can be seen here.

There are three basic storage options for SMBs: DAS, NAS and SAN.

DAS: Ideal for Local File Sharing

DAS or Direct Attached Storage is your hard drive directly inside your host server, transferring data via system buses inside your computer like IDE or SCSI. The network interface is managed by the OS. In order to connect to the storage device, you must access the host server. Most server enclosures are restricted to a limited number of drives and hence there is not much flexibility with DAS for rapidly growing IT environments. While DAS is inside your server case, NAS and SAN appliances are connected to your servers or the network – hence they are considered networked storage. DAS used to comprise a large majority of IT infrastructures in the past but many SMBs are finally realizing the necessity to transition away from DAS to networked storage. Most customers who used DAS did so because it had the reputation of being simple and inexpensive.

NAS: Ideal for Sharing Files or Backups on the Network

A Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a file level storage appliance that can be accessed on the network over Ethernet (TCP/IP) rather than being directly placed in side your server case like your hard drives (i.e. DAS). This enables multiple computers to share the same storage space simultaneously. NAS is typically good for being a centralized file storage repository on your local area network. The reason that NAS was initially created is for solving the problem of managing sprawling data on many servers in the IT servers rooms or within the data center. With too many servers containing disconnected data, it became nearly unmanageable and too time-consuming and costly to administer or back up all that data on a daily basis. NAS solved that problem because it is significantly simpler for IT administrators to manage data files stored on one single storage device that is accessible from anywhere on the network.

SANs: Ideal for Block-Level Storage for VMware, Hyper-V and for Ensuring High Availability

Just like NAS appliances, SAN systems are also connected to the network and are accessible from any server over that network. While DAS is ideal for local file sharing on the same server, and while NAS is ideal for sharing files centrally on the network for small SMBs where workgroups share information, neither NAS nor DAS is not a good fit for storing block-level data such as VMware or Hyper-V virtual machines in a virtualized IT environment.

Today, SMBs can find SAN options that are also simple and inexpensive yet is much better for data protection and management than a DAS approach. Additionally, a SAN is the only way to increase application and data availability for server virtualization.

In contrast to a DAS or a NAS, which are meant for file sharing, SANs are able to quickly move large blocks of data on the network. Given this ability, SANs are the best way to ensure predictable performance and significantly increase the availability and reliability of applications and data, especially for VMware, Hyper-V and XenServer environments. SANs are also used for highly intensive I/O applications like SQL Server database. Also, unlike direct-attached storage, excess capacity in SANs can be pooled which results in a very high utilization of storage resources.

If you are installing or running a Virtualized IT Environment such as VMware or Hyper-V then you need a SAN!

Server virtualization is growing at over 100% per year according to a recent IDC report. Everyone knows the ostensible benefits:

• server virtualization improves IT management
• reduces expenses, and
• improves server utilization

But here is the primary reason: server virtualization increases application and data availability.

Ensuring that servers are continuously operating even in the event of failure or disaster or even a human error is the key impetus of virtualization initiatives in IT departments around the world.

At the foundation of each successful vSphere or Hyper-V implementation is networked storage or “shared storage” (i.e. SAN). It’s required to enable IT administrators to provision virtual machines and to move them between physical hosts for workload balancing and to restart unresponsive VMs from a functional host in the case of system failure which essentially makes “high availability” possible.

Traditionally, network storage has been too expensive to buy and too complex to manage for anyone aside from big companies with large IT budgets. But using SAN software created a paradigm shift. With SAN software, you can easily and inexpensively turn a industry-standard Intel or AMD server into shared storage to transfer storage data from your VMware vSphere or Hyper-V servers to the centralized storage. This SAN software technology works like the typical “firmware” inside a high-end storage appliance but just without the actual metal box that comes pre-packaged in a UPS Ground box. Instead, you just get the SAN software and run it on any powerful server, for instance with 8TB of hard disk drives inside, and with a flip of that proverbial switch, you have a fully-functional SAN that is highly reliable and highly available, robust, powerful and easy to install and manage.

Back in 2003, StarWind started to develop this SAN “firmware” which would alleviate the pains of purchasing a complex, proprietary and very expensive SAN. With the new SAN software platform from StarWind, customers were finally able to eliminate the expenses and complexities of the traditional, proprietary SANs that were available at that time only from the big storage vendors. Today, StarWind is a leading provider of this advanced SAN software that is mainly used to build shared storage appliances for VMware ESX and now vSphere as well as Hyper-V and this combination of StarWind and server virtualization platforms creates a powerful infrastructure that is highly available, fault-tolerant and easy to protect and manage. There is proven synergy between StarWind and VMware with over 30,000+ users in over 100+ countries.

Here is the short list of benefits of using StarWind to build highly available storage out of standard Intel-architecture servers for use with VMware and Hyper-V:

• Transform a standard, Intel-architecture server into a fault-tolerant SAN with High Availability
• Build your own shared storage to take advantage of Live Migration with Hyper-V or VMotion and VMware HA with VMware vSphere
• Build a high-end SAN without the high costs associated with proprietary vendor products
• Ensure Business Continuity with Synchronous Mirroring, Remote Replication and CDP/Snapshots of the virtual machines

Virtually any size company can realize all of server virtualization benefits with a SAN. With a StarWind SAN, you access unlimited terabytes of storage through the purchase of downloadable software that can be installed on any x86 or x64 server and existing network infrastructure in less than 30 minutes. StarWind is simple, reliable and scales rapidly to growing demands. Now here is the biggest benefit of being able to run StarWind SAN software on standard enterprise-class x86 or x64 storage server (e.g. from blades to rack servers): this allows customers to choose from any standard hardware that meets performance, scalability and budget requirements. More importantly, the use of standard servers makes it easy to upgrade to new hardware, faster memory, Nehalem processors, PCI Express RAID controllers or 10 GigE networking that will all improve the performance of the storage appliance built with StarWind

StarWind created a special program for any Microsoft MVP, MCT or MCP who can receive a completely free and complimentary NFR key to use the StarWind High Availability SAN Software edition with Hyper-V (this edition is otherwise listed for $6000 with full year maintenance). The use of this NFR is limited to Microsoft professionals applying it with Hyper-V for demoing, training and testing/development although not for use as production storage in a commercial IT environment. To get a copy of the key, go to www.starwindsoftware.com/microsoft or email hyper-v@starwindsoftware.com

I recall reading an IDC report less than a year ago that said “The iSCSI SAN market continues to show strong momentum, posting 96.7% revenue growth compared to the prior year’s quarter”. Stating that the growth rate in the iSCSI storage market is 96.7% is approximately the same as saying that it has doubled in one year. Looking back over the past year, I can see that IDC analysts were correct in their prediction. Indeed, iSCSI is growing very rapidly is the storage protocol of choice for many large and small companies worldwide. So why is iSCSI storage adoption growing so fast?

Here is a little background. The Small Computer System Interface, or “SCSI”, has been a protocol for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and storage devices. It was standardized in 1986 although SCSI actually derived from “SASI” (Shugart Associates System Interface) which was developed around 1978 which was a controller that connected a hard disk and a host computer which needed to read blocks of data.

Now fast forward to 2003 when the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) ratified a new protocol as a standard which enabled the transfer of SCSI packets over a TCP/IP (the Ethernet network). The seal of approval from the IETF kicked the “iSCSI” into first gear and enabled IT professionals to use existing and ubiquitous Ethernet networks for connecting to storage. Additionally, iSCSI addressed the distance limitations because now storage could be carried over long distances across the WAN on the Internet.

We are nearing 2010 and today iSCSI has been the storage protocol used in servers rooms at small and midsize companies as well as the Fortunate 1000. The reasons are clear: it is easy to deploy and the cost savings versus Fibre Channel protocol are prodigious.

iSCSI provides abundant benefits for companies of all sizes and iSCSI is also ideal for mixed storage environments where companies use the Fibre Channel technology. Some of these benefits are:

• iSCSI uses the familiar network standards: Ethernet and TCP/IP - Unlike the more complex integration and skills required for Fibre Channel SAN’s, all IT professionals are already familiar with setting up TCP/IP.
• TCO (Total cost of ownership) for storage is significantly lower - iSCSI SAN’s are easier to configure and sustain than Fibre Channel which in turn reduces the necessity of re-training the IT personnel.
• For small and midsize companies, iSCSI is the most cost effective solution - Simplified management and leveraging existing infrastructure eliminates the necessity to buy costly equipment.
• Synchronous and asynchronous replication works well over IP networks - iSCSI replication eliminates the need for expensive Fibre Channel routers and allows greater distance over IP network.
• iSCSI eliminates costly Fibre Channel equipment such as HBA’s (host bus adapters), directors and cables - Using existing IP infrastructure and personnel skill sets simplifies IT operations within the data center.
• iSCSI works over 10 Gibabit IP networks - This enables network intensive applications to take advantage of iSCSI, thus allowing greater performance for Metro and Wide Area Networks (WAN).
• Industry standard - With the ratification of iSCSI standards by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), there has been a continuing commitment from and support by industry leaders such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Intel and many others.

Rapid price drop in storage hardware, the growth of server virtualization and the need for simplified management of these servers, as well as the requirement for higher data availability, reliability and fault-tolerance are all contributing to increasing adoption of “shared storage” by SMBs.

Typical shared storage implementation comes in 2 flavors - NAS and SAN. A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a file-level storage device and uses the IP/Ethernet network to store files. NAS enables multiple computers to share a common storage space and it is typically used for storing backup data. Basically, a NAS is a centralized appliance that is used for storing, retrieving and serving files. But a SAN (Storage Area Network) is different. A SAN uses block-level protocol and allows multiple servers to have access to the same shared storage offering improved scalability, reliability and centralized management of server application data that is centralized. Typically a SAN is used as shared storage for server applications such as VMware, Hyper-V, SQL Server, SharePoint or others. A SAN is especially necessary for setting up Windows Server Clusters which allows for a highly reliable environment with automatic failover from one server to another using the SAN as the centralized shared storage on the network. Additionally, you can boot servers from the SAN itself.

A traditional SAN uses Fibre Channel (FC) interface which requires considerably more expensive hardware such as HBAs, FC switches for host and I/O subsystem connectivity, and expensive cables. FC implementations require a great deal of training to gain specific protocol expertise and system configuration skills as well as training on how to maintain the storage infrastructure.

Therefore an iSCSI SAN is a much better option for small and midsize companies than a Fibre Channel SAN. iSCSI stands for Internet Small Computer System Interface and works by sending SCSI data packets over the Ethernet. Also known as an IP SAN, an iSCSI SAN uses standard Ethernet cables, adapters and switches instead of the non-standard and complex FC infrastructure. Therefore it is possible to build a truly affordable IP SAN which enables SMBs to realize the benefits of SAN storage, without the high costs and added complexity associated with a Fibre Channel SAN. In fact, Ethernet components are typically 10%-20% of the cost of comparable FC components. And implementing an iSCSI SAN is much simpler because every company is already familiar with IP networking.

You can buy an iSCSI SAN from big vendors like EMC or NetApp. But a more affordable and simpler option is to build your own SAN with “Storage Virtualization” software like StarWind Enterprise Server that allows you to turn any existing c86 or x64 Server into iSCSI SAN. Starwind allows you to download the software and try it and you can have a SAN in less than 30 minutes for a price that is a fraction of buying a costly hardware solution from the traditional vendors.