ISAN - An intelligent storage area network architecture

Abstract

This paper describes the motivation, architecture and implementation of iSAN, an "intelligent" storage area network. The main contributions of this work are: (1) how to architect an intelligent SAN that understands the storage-consumers' to serve them better; (2) how to realise this abstract architecture using existing technologies; and (3) to demonstrate the benefits that would accrue from such an intelligent SAN. Our results show that the iSAN approach has important benefits when compared with conventional SANs: iSAN facilitates storage sharing, is secure and offers better throughput. In this paper, we discuss two case studies as well as discuss how iSAN approach has been generic enough to capture a wide range of other requirements of SANs. © Springer-Verlag 2004.