Achieving High Availability With Campus SANs

SANs have evolved to become the preferred solution for achieving critical data-storage needs in both large enterprises and small to midsize businesses. An emerging trend for SAN deployment is called the campus SAN. Recent events regarding data protection have raised the value of campus SANs considerably. This paper will discuss how the LeftHand SAN and its SAN/iQ software provide ultra-high availability capabilities for campus SAN storage topologies.

A campus is a site, or general location on which the rooms, departments or buildings of an organization or institution are located. Campus environments are often found in hospitals, universities, governments and manufacturing companies, but many other businesses have evolved their IT operations as a campus. Various industry estimates indicate that campus data may account for as much as 25% of all stored data, and the number is growing as data protection requirements mount.

Departments or buildings on campuses frequently have their own dedicated data storage and computing facilities. This leaves the IT function vulnerable to fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, power grid failures and other disasters like most traditional data centers. In addition, the campus must effectively deal with smaller and possibly more frequent disruptions ranging from HVAC failures, sprinkler activation, to the inadvertent unplugging of servers or equipment from the power supply.