Course Description / Overview / Expected Outcome: A group of students was asked recently to define a "SAN." Some replies included "storage area networks," "server area networks," "system area networks" and the instructor's favorite, "The latest thing to sell!" SAN is all of these things and more. This course takes a top-down approach in examining the information flow requirements levied on a Storage Network and how various technologies meet those requirements. It identifies why organizations are moving toward NAS and SAN. It provides a comprehensive technical examination of Fibre channel, SCSI and IP protocols, along with the role they play in a Storage Network. It compares SAN technologies with network technologies including ESCON, Gigabit Ethernet, ATM, and other LAN and WAN physical transports. The course examines the practical problems faced in the heterogeneous world where the "any to any" connectivity provided by SANs can present more problems than it solves. It identifies the techniques used to overcome these problems through the use of volume management, storage resource security and persistent binding. The course identifies the components and products that make up a NAS or SAN, examines the design and performance aspects of a SAN, and finally explores where Storage Networks are headed over the next few years.

What’s exciting about it, why it’s important, where it’s going:
• It provides a one-of-a-kind tutorial with an industry subject matter expert who has real-world experience and superior presentation skills
• It provides a vendor-neutral view of storage networking with a focus leveraging your investment in network infrastructure, existing and future storage and server assets
• It separates the myth from reality of the various storage networking solutions and technologies
• It explains the technical differences between Fibre Channel and IP Storage and when to use these technologies
• It puts you in position to understand what storage networks can and cannot do for you
• It will make you more knowledgeable in dealing with the plethora of vendors of storage networking products and services
• It takes a “network” view of storage networks yet identifies how storage networks differ fundamentally from other data networks like the Internet
• It takes complex storage networking topics and breaks them down in a simple, easy-to-understand way