Networking Technology: why to choose iSCSI?

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Networking Technology: why to choose iSCSI?

Storage Area Network can use either iSCSI or Fibre Channel protocols. Fibre Channel SANs usually transmits data at rates ranging between 4Gbps and 8Gbps with the possible growing up to 16Gbps. At the same time iSCSI SANs can work with 10Gbps bandwidth and have much more brilliant perspectives of supporting 40Gbps and 100Gbps.

Many people usually consider FC SANs to provide the highest possible performance, but just a few know that iSCSI SANs are able to outperform Fiber Channel storage area networks. Utilizing 10Gbps Ethernet, iSCSI SAN provides up to 30% bigger throughput comparing to Fibre Channel. The same behavior you can see when comparing I/O performance of both technologies.

According to ESG laboratories Validation Report, iSCSI SANs can be created at the one-fifth of the price of FC-based analogue. SANs based on Fibre Channel are using high cost switches, network interface cards and proprietary software. At the same time iSCSI-based Storage Area Networks do not need specialized cables, NICs or any other specialized hardware because it connects servers and storage through the layer 2 Ethernet directly. In case of Ethernet-based iSCSI SANs all packets are transmitted through available network connections between server and storage. iSCSI SANs are powerful, reliable, and fast. Ethernet is an easy, convenient and rapid network with a low latency.

iSCSI SAN has an easier infrastructure comparing to FC solutions, can be quickly installed and configured; it is not too complicated to manage and does not require specialized knowledge base. iSCSI Storage Area Network integrates seamlessly in the server OS with the help of a driver that allows client OS to treat the SAN storage arrays as local disks. This ability allows a shared storage to perform its functions quickly and significantly reduces time required for building a SAN. For example, the iSCSI SAN software developed by the StarWind Company allows you to build enterprise-class storage within even less than 30 minutes. Moreover, you will be able to use your existing network infrastructure, thus creating your own SAN for affordable prices. At the same time you will need hours to build and configure an FC-based SAN, and specialized knowledge base to deploy and manage it.

It is known that the storage costs consume about 25-40% (or even more) of IT budgets. This situation forces companies to look for the ways to decrease the storage expenses. Investing in the iSCSI SAN technology provides numerous advantages. iSCSI SAN built with the StarWind solution is fast and easy to deploy, set up and manage and provides high performance. Moreover, you will be able to create your own SAN using the existing infrastructure, thus making the price for your shared storage attractive and reasonable.