Nearline Goes Native: Tiered Storage With FC Disk Drives

The advent of Fibre Channel (FC) prompted a new network paradigm: the storage area network (SAN). With every server able to see every storage device in an FC SAN, data accessibility skyrocketed-and network efficiency with it. Now tiered storage has rewritten the rules for FC storage efficiency, complementing established online and offline storage platforms with a third tier of nearline storage to cost-effectively house the rarely accessed but fundamentally essential data that's flooding the enterprise.

The ideal nearline disc drive combines economical capacity, seamless compatibility with existing network infrastructures, and nearline-class reliability. A growing number of businesses have turned to high-capacity, low-cost Serial ATA (SATA) drives for nearline duty in their FC SANs. However, such devices require a separate SATA infrastructure or FC-to-SATA bridge (eliminating advanced capabilities of the FC protocol), and are not always designed for rigorous nearline workloads.

The solution is high-capacity, low-cost disc drives purpose-built for Fibre Channel networks. As one would expect, these nearlineready drives deliver the exceptional reliability (1.0 million hours MTBF) that nearline duty demands. But more importantly, native FC nearline drives make full use of the FC protocol, enabling tighter integration of online, nearline and offline storage tiers. Such interface rationalization streamlines FC SAN infrastructures, reducing costs, easing management and improving performance.