Improving Scalability, Manageability, and Performance for Network-Attached Storage (NAS) Solutions

No one disputes the theoretical advantages of Network-Attached Storage (NAS) compared to direct-attached storage. The inefficiencies involved with multiple, separate data storage platforms can be greatly improved with an alternative NAS solution. Scalability, availability, and performance can also be enhanced with the currently available NAS platforms. However, many NAS solutions introduce complexities and hidden costs. The expertise required to effectively deploy and manage some NAS products can require adding IT specialists to the team, and can introduce administration and monitoring tasks that raise the total cost of ownership. For these reasons, NAS has been deemed too expensive by some organizations that could otherwise benefit from the inherent advantages such as simplified data sharing and increased data access performance.