File Area Network - Elements of A FAN

Elements of A FAN

Based on Taneja Group’s research, below are some of the elements found in a mature FAN:

1. Storage Devices - The foundation on which a FAN is built is the storage infrastructure. This can be either a SAN or a NAS environment. The only pre-requisite is that a FAN leverages a networked storage environment to enable data and resource sharing.
2. File-serving devices/interfaces - Either as a directly integrated part of the storage infrastructure (e.g., NAS) or as a gateway interface (e.g., SAN), all FAN must have devices capable of serving file-level information in the form of standard protocols such as CIFS and/or NFS.
3. Namespaces - A FAN is based on a file system with the ability to organize, present, and store file content for authorized end clients. This capability is referred to as the file system's "namespace," a central concept in the FAN architecture. As discussed above, inherent to the SAT is the ability to abstract and virtualize the actual file system architecture from the application servers. Linking an application server or a workstation directly with a share exposed by a filer introduces management overhead when for example, maintenance tasks are performed on the filers, such as hardware upgrades. Such a tight coupling between the application tier and the data tier introduces knowledge of the underlying NAS to the application servers which should be avoided. A SAT has the ability to abstract this interface and much like a Distributed File System with referrals (DFS), SAT techniques will map network file share access requests to the actual NAS hardware, providing storage IT administrators with central control over the ultimate placement of the file data anywhere in the storage infrastructure. Such a name space is known as a Globally Unified Namespace (GUN) and provides a heterogeneous, enterprise-wide abstraction of all file level information.
4. File optimization services – File data optimization techniques range anywhere from duplicate data elimination via content addressed storage and commonality factoring to complex inline compression techniques that achieve maximum storage efficiency. Controlling storage size before the file data enters the primary tier has a multiplier effect on combating costs. Enterprises will have to buy less hardware and services, and manage a lot less data. Backup and restore windows are drastically reduces and storage infrastructure upgrades become less frequent. From a storage management standpoint, simply having less data to deal with would drastically reduce expenses incurred by data expansion, and the SAT is where such storage reduction techniques can be accurately and globally made across all file content.
5. File security and DRM services – Technologies to encrypt the data and administer rights management and access control must be performed centrally as data enters and leaves the primary tier. This again is a key feature of the SAT as it sits between the application and workstation access points and the primary storage tier. It also provides a central location to administer and monitor security policies, a topic which is becoming increasing important in the light of compliance and regulatory requirements in dealing with sensitive information.
6. File management services – Quota administration, storage expansion and migration and replication services are a critical component of any storage infrastructure. Rather than having to deal with these services in silos on different storage islands, a SAT allows storage administrators to control these tasks at the correct tier.
7. End Clients - All FANs have end client machines that access the namespaces created by file systems. The clients could be on any type of platform or computing device.
8. Connectivity - There are many possible ways for a FAN to connect its end clients to the namespaces. They are commonly connected across a standard LAN using CIFS or NFS, but they may simultaneously or alternatively leverage wide-area technologies, as well.