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Network File Management
Time To Discover NFM
5/1/2007
Whereas storage virtualization is confined to a SAN, NFM can be applied to maximize this unused storage across the enterprise by creating dynamic pools where storage is available. If, for example, a research project has large storage needs for a short period of time, space can be allocated on other servers and managed by NFM, says David Kim, president and CSO for secure networking and security solution provider Security Evolutions. “Once the project ends, the storage can be returned to the allocation pool for the next project,” he says.
NFM Products: A Sampling
- Acopia Networks: ARX series
- Attune Systems: Maestro File Manager
- Brocade: StorageX
- Cisco Systems: NFM functionality based on NeoPath Networks’ File Director product
- EMC: Rainfinity Global File Virtualization
Storage resources also may be maximized by utilizing access frequency, size, type, and other attributes of files. While frequently accessed files may be stored on a highperformance SAN, there is little need to utilize these more expensive systems for files stored mainly for historical purposes; NFM administrators can create policies to route file storage to the most cost-effective storage media.
“The cost of maintaining a large storage pool requires that storage be allocated based upon a policy of demonstrated need,” Ryder adds. By using the shared storage capacity to optimize backup systems, policies may be created to assign storage (for all files not accessed within a certain period) to a storage medium that has a backup schedule consistent with the policy. This can reduce using backup resources to store multiple copies of the same file version. But which kinds of products are campus systems architects turning to?
Joe Little, principal systems architect of Stanford University’s (CA) Electrical Engineering department, turned to NeoPath Networks’ File Director product (recently acquired by Cisco Systems), when he was faced with optimizing storage of many file servers. The virtualization technology acquired by Cisco manages the combined storage capacity of the department’s NAS and, in the future,
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