The Essential Guide to Storage Area Networks [Paperback]

John R. Vacca (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0130935751 | ISBN-13: 978-0130935755 | Edition: 1st

SANs allow companies to manage accelerating amounts of data more effectively than ever before. But SANs are also extremely complex. Finally, there's a readable, start-to-finish overview that gives business and IT professionals all the guidance they need to make intelligent decisions about SAN technology: planning, implementation, management, and beyond. Leading network consultant John Vacca begins by reviewing each type of SAN technology, the SAN vendor community (including SAN service providers), and current and anticipated SAN standards. He offers in-depth guidance on cost-justifying, planning, and designing SANs, including detailed coverage of scalability, high availability, and virtual storage area networks for mission-critical Web applications. Next, Vacca presents in-depth coverage of testing, rollout, performance certification, day-to-day management, and maintenance. The book presents a full section on current and future SAN applications, as well as six detailed appendices -- ranging from product and vendor lists to a case study covering streaming SANs in action.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

• The up-to-the-minute SAN guide for every decision-maker
• Concepts, standards, applications, vendors, ROI, and much more
• Planning, design, architecture, deployment, testing, performance, maintenance, and more
• In-depth coverage of SAN applications in high-availability mission-critical systems
• IP-based SANs and other emerging technologies

Reliable, cost-effective SANs: an up-to-the-minute briefing for every decision-maker.

SANs enable companies to manage accelerating amounts of data far more effectively, but their reputation for complexity has deterred many companies from deploying them. Now, there's a readable, up-to-the-minute guidebook designed to help business and IT professionals understand SAN technology, make intelligent decisions, and derive maximum business advantage from SANs—starting right now. Leading network consultant John Vacca covers the entire SAN lifecycle, from planning and strategy to implementation and day-to-day administration. Coverage includes:

• SANs: what they are and what they offer
• Debunking the Top 5 SAN myths
• Comparing today's leading approaches: advantages, disadvantages, and tradeoffs
• The SAN vendor community-including the newest SAN service providers
• IP-based SANs and other emerging standards—and what they mean to you
• Practical techniques for cost-justifying, planning, and designing SANs
• Maximizing scalability and availability
• In-depth deployment coverage: installation, testing, rollout, and performance certification
• Day-to-day management and maintenance
• Next-generation SAN applications—including virtual SANs for mission-critical Web applications
• 6 valuable appendices: product lists, vendor lists, streaming SAN case study, and much more

Storage has never been more critical to your success—and by 2005 it may account for up to 70% of your IT budget. No storage technology offers more promise than SANs. Now's the time to understand them, and this is the book: The Essential Guide to Storage Area Networks.

About the Author

JOHN VACCA is an information technology consultant and author of more than 400 articles and 32 technology books, including The Cabling Handbook, Second Edition (Prentice Hall PTR). Formerly the computer security official (CSO) for NASA's International Space Station, he was also a security consultant for the MGM movie AntiTrust. He is based in Pomeroy, OH.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Pearson Education; 1st edition (November 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130935751
• ISBN-13: 978-0130935755
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,390,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A poor book, January 27, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Storage Area Networks (Paperback)

The book is weak on specifics, and inundated with
meaningless statements. Very few schemes and graphs
and setups,of systems, and many generalized devoid of
understanding lines. This is a useless book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not very technical, and mostly low level when it is, September 17, 2002

By 

Rodney Van Meter III (Half Moon Bay, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Storage Area Networks (Paperback)

This book will tell you about Brocade's stock price and EMC's corporate culture, and about computer forensics' need of SAN storage, and about FC-AL, but if you need to know the different scalability characteristics of GFS versus StorageTank for your SAN file system, this is the wrong book (neither is even mentioned). I do like the fact that VAXclusters get mentioned; too many books think SAN means Fibre Channel only. "IDE" in this context means "integrated drive electronics", NOT "integrated development environment" (I consider this to be a fairly serious gaffe). Overall, I think the lack of information on how you turn a pile of hardware into a working system is a big drawback.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice on conceptual and vendor information, January 27, 2002

By 

Darryl Arrington (San Angelo, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Storage Area Networks (Paperback)

John did a great job of presenting conceptual information, in a very easy to understand format. He also presented a truck-load of vendor information; some of these vendors I had never heard of in 23 years in the business (although I did have a 6 year hiatus in the middle 80's). This is an excellent book which will help the reader make a decision on whether or not to go with a SAN solution for their business decisions. My only gripe, and this is probably just me, is that there is not enough specific information on actually "nuts&bolts" running and managing a live SAN. There is a nice glossary provided, which has helped me in the day to day management, but for the common sysadmin, who is trying to manage one of these complicated beasts, I could use a lot more specific information than that which is provided. A great book for the beginner (buy the book), a great book for the mid-level Technical Services Manager (BUY the book) who needs to know what a SAN is and what it can do for him and his company. For the sysadmin, it needs more information (unless you're a sysadmin who has never had experience with a SAN - then, in every case, BUYthis book!!!) find something more specific.

Overall, nice work, Mr. Vacca. I enjoyed it - it filled in the gaps.