Unified storage has evolved as a novel way of reducing IT complexity, improving business flexibility and reducing costs. The notion of universal storage built on the premise that the storage solution does not care what type of data, block or file, is sent to it.
A unified storage solution natively supports block based protocols (iSCSI) and file-based protocols (NFS/CIFS) in the same appliance eliminating the need for physically separate boxes for SAN and NAS storage. A very interesting consolidation option. Notice there was no mention of FC. That is because there are no solutions that offer iSCSI, FC and NFS/CIFS natively in the same appliance. For a broader discussion on this topic check out my recent professional alert.
Unified storage is a concept that should appeal to all storage users, particularly the small and medium sized users. This community has all the same data management challenges as the bigger folks but has less budget dollars, less staff and less expertise which compounds the complexity of managing disparate storage systems. Universal storage may be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks for reading our blog, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed, or follow Wikibon on Twitter for future updates and information as well.
