10 April 2021

Advantages and Disadvantages of SAN

SAN stands for storage area network, it is a dedicated high-speed network particularly used for data storage. This network is built with servers, fiber optics, and storage devices. In this system, the storage device is not directly connected to the servers. So here this article gives the advantages and disadvantages of storage area networks to better understand this topic.

Advantages of Storage area network:

  • Simplified storage administration
  • Disk mirroring
  • Low cost of storage management
  • Instant and real-time information
  • Ability to boot itself and expand the storage capacity
  • Hundreds of terabytes of data can be stored using any number of storage devices.
  • SAN is not directly attached to any particular server or network, SAN can be shared by all

Disadvantages of storage area network:

  • If client computers need intensive data transfer then SAN is not the right choice. SAN is good for low data traffic
  • More expensive
  • It is very hard to maintain
  • As all client computers share the same set of storage devices so sensitive data can be leaked. It is preferable not to store confidential information on this network.
  • Poor implementation results in a performance bottleneck
  • It's difficult to keep a data backup in case of a system failure.
  • Not affordable for small business
  • Require a high-level technical person
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