Resilient Storage Networks: Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures (Digital Press Storage Technology) [Paperback]

Greg Schulz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1555583113 | ISBN-13: 978-1555583118 | Edition: 1

A resilient storage network is an environment where data is always available for the needs of the business. This book explains the components, as well as how to design and implement a resilient storage network for workgroup, departmental, and enterprise environments. Storage networks are an enabling capability combining technology and best practices to provide the foundation to support information technology systems and applications. Storage networks can be of various sizes, shapes, and technologies. This book shows you how to implement a resilient storage network infrastructure using different technologies including ATM, DWDM, FCIP, Fibre Channel, FICON, iFCP, InfiniBand, IP, iSCSI, Life Cycle Management, NAS, Object Based Storage, RAID, RDMA, Remote Mirroring, Replication, SAN, SCSI, SMI-S, SONET/SDH, Storage Services, Tape, Virtualization, and Volume Managers.

*Important information is clarified and put into context to separate myths and realities *Covers storage networking technologies (hardware, software, networks) and practices
*Numerous tips and recommendations allow the reader to quickly understand best practices
*Checklists, templates and examples show potential solutions

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Greg Schulz has written the most authoritative and definitive book on storage networking. It is must reading for anyone considering procurement of storage or currently has a network and requires storage that will be accessible across the network. His insights on configuring and managing storage make this a truly invaluable reference for not only those entering the storage arena but also for seasoned storage managers."
--Peter Doob - Storage Professional


"A few years ago, Greg Schulz contributed to a book on enterprise resiliency for which I was the editor. I observed at the time that he had such a wealth of material on storage network resiliency that a whole book on that subject would make sense. Now, he's done it. "Resilient Storage Networks" is the most thorough exposition of the subject I've seen to date. It includes material on justification, technology, implementation, management, and concludes with examples of storage networks optimized for particular purposes or situations. As an independent analyst with an extensive background in both the storage and network industry segments, Greg is uniquely qualified to speak on this subject. Enterprise storage architects, designers, and managers, as well as executives will find "Resilient Storage Networks" both interesting and informative."
--Paul Massiglia - Author & Technical Director, Veritas Software


"Resilient Storage Networking" is the most complete picture I have seen of this complex and business relevant area of technology. It objectively presents the issues and possible solutions so the reader can make decisions appropriate to their business and technology needs with a clear understanding of the implications of those decisions. It is an excellent choice for the unexercised as an education tool and for the very experienced as a reference source."
-- Greg Brunton - EDS Australia


"Greg's vast knowledge, his clear concise writing style and excellent use of diagrams, makes it easy to comprehend the complex topics of storage networking."
--Tom Becchetti - Blue Cross Blue Shield

"Schultz's book is an excellent primer for network administrators who need a concise yet thorough entry into the field of storage, and should be a must-have on any storage administrator's library shelf." - Storage Networks Industry Association, April 2006

Book Description

Finally, a book that covers design, implementation, and management of a resilient storage infrastructure

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 443 pages
• Publisher: Digital Press; 1 edition (April 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555583113
• ISBN-13: 978-1555583118
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #210,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Schulz is the founder of the IT industry advisory and consultancy firm Server and StorageIO. Before StorageIO, Schulz worked for several firms in their IT departments. Later Schulz joined the ranks of vendors with several firms as a systems engineer, sales and marketing along with technologist roles. Along with his extensive expertise in data center operation and data infrastructure technologies, Schulz has a background in electric power utilities, having worked in IT at a regional energy generating and transmission company.

His past experience also includes hands-on technology jobs as a systems developer, systems administrator, disaster recovery consultant, and capacity planner across different technology domains, such as servers, storage, I/O networking hardware, software and services.

In addition to his analyst consulting and research duties, with an insightful and thought-provoking style, Schulz is a prolific writer, blogger, and sought-after speaker, sharing his expertise on a global basis. Schulz lives in Stillwater, a suburb of Minneapolis on the Minnesota and Wisconsin border where he spends time fishing, listening to music, cooking and relaxing in the great outdoors when not working or traveling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In-depth and comprehensive information on storage networking, August 4, 2004

By 

-ecs- "ECS" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Resilient Storage Networks: Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures (Digital Press Storage Technology) (Paperback)

Resilient Storage Networks picks up where other books leave off. The author walks the reader through the fundamentals of storage networking and then dives deep into the data storage technologies used in building a resilient storage infrastructure. Business continuation, data management, protection and recovery, networking access interfaces and protocols, cabling, distance extension, storage I/O, and storage devices are among some of the topics discussed in detail. The author gives examples and "how-to's" in implementing appropriate solutions for different requirements. The book is particularly effective at illustrating best practice methodologies for designing and implementing storage networks. Excellent technical content and effective use of diagrams. Greg's experience and vendor-neutral approach shine through in this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Storage Networking, July 24, 2004

By 

P. Doob "Storage Consultant" (Bay area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Resilient Storage Networks: Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures (Digital Press Storage Technology) (Paperback)

This book is the most informative text on the market for those interested in building high available storage that is assessable across a network. Greg has written a book that is comprehensive in its scope yet readable by all those in the IT world. You will find a wealth of information on not only how to design a storage netork to meet the needs of your applications but also how to maintain it while providing the highest data availability.
I found of particular interest to me the abundance of examples on different configurations depending on a company's current infrastructure and how the connectivity could be modified to incorporate the most up to date networking technology.
I guarantee every time you read a section from this book you will come away with some new thoughts on implementing storage.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Higher-Level Architectural Strategies, June 2, 2005

By 

Maxim Masiutin (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Resilient Storage Networks: Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures (Digital Press Storage Technology) (Paperback)

This is a very easy to understand yet comprehensive manual on resilient storage networks. Such networks are able to provide business continuation in the event that a significant disruption occurs. While there are other publications available like "Mission-Critical Network Planning" by Matthew Liotine, "Resilient Storage Networks" mainly focuses to storage media and ways to access it.

The first chapters of the book are generally educative: they cover various treats and requirements for data protection, data storage fundamentals, i.e. what is a bit and what is a byte, etc. Then it proceeds to storage networking access models and I/O interfaces. A large part of the book is devoted to fiber optics: cabling types, connectors and transceivers, link loss and power budgets, protocol drop, etc.

There are different schemes and illustrations that will help you to choose, at a higher level, to categorize the information that you store, and to build the best kind of network for it: small storage network, consolidation and intermix, metropolitan and wide are storage networks, large and high-performance networks, etc.

This is a very friendly and easy-to-understand volume. It is vendor-neutral and doesn't specify individual products and solutions. It looks at the big picture and emphasizes higher-level architectural strategies, based on existing network protocols, access models and interfaces.