What is network attached storage as opposed to EMC's product?
Network attached storage (NAS) is an architecture based on a storage "appliance". An appliance is a specialized computer system that is designed to do only one thing, but do it faster, simpler, more reliably than a general purpose computer. In NTAP's case, their appliance is a "filer", which is a set of off-the-shelf hardware with a special operating system that makes the storage attached to the filer behave as if it were being controlled by Unix and/or NT. The filer attaches to the LAN and provides a fast, cheap, reliable storage system for servers and clients to use.
ISPs are using network attached storage to grow their disk farms cheaply, in terms of speed of installation, speed of response, and reduced sys admin time, compared to disks attached to Unix or NT servers. Corporations are doing the same, as opposed to adding more storage to their NT and Unix servers.
EMC is getting into NAS, but traditionally has been displacing storage devices attached to mainframes.
Long on EMC and NTAP. |
