Making a case for the File Area Network
Damian Ryan
20/06/2007

Anyone responsible for managing data in an enterprise IT environment during the past few years realises that a large and growing percentage of corporate data now takes the form of files. This includes unstructured data organised within a file system and accessed as a file - such as Microsoft Word documents or PowerPoint presentations.

Consider the sheer growth in the number of files to manage, the increasingly complex file systems, and the large-scale applications that utilise files and you realise why file management has taken on a much higher level of prominence throughout the enterprise.

The growing emphasis on file data has created the need for a new management paradigm – the File Area Network (FAN).

As IT organisations increasingly focus on shared storage infrastructure, the traditional barriers between block and file storage begin to blur.

Whether an organisation manages its data at the block device level or file system level, many of the tasks are similar, the issues nearly identical, and the challenges ever present.

Provisioning, backup, security, failover, migration, extension, and connectivity: All these tasks are performed on data, rather than on storage subsystems or networks. Moreover, these tasks are virtually the same for both block and file data, and the management approaches are growing more uniform by the day.

File Area Network (FAN) has emerged as a logical way to describe an emerging class of hardware and software technologies whose primary mission is to organise, route, manage, and provide consistent access to massive amounts of files.

At a basic level, FANs provide several key services:

- Enterprise-wide, pervasive control of all file information, including the management of file attributes based on meta data and content values, regardless of platform

- Ability to establish user file visibility and access rights based on business values (such as individual departments, projects, or geographies) regardless of physical device or location

- Non-disruptive, transparent movement of file information across platforms and/or geographical boundaries

- Creation of file management services that are deployed as true ‘services’ to the entire infrastructure and not deployed in application-specific silos

- Measurable ROI for file management due to consolidation of redundant file resources (such as de-duplication of redundant files)




Figure 1 above shows how FAN can support organisations in managing their files. Components and architectures will continue to evolve over time, as will industry standards to help guide and standardise specific implementations of file access methods.

Enabling next-generation storage efficiencies

FAN represents a means for enterprises to achieve previously unattainable levels of file control and investment returns. Its value lies in its ability to help organisations improve organisational flexibility and agility for continued growth and sustained competitiveness.

FAN enables organisations to consolidate resources to lower utilisation and total cost of ownership, control and manage massive data growth, and enable connectivity throughout the organisation and across geographies.

Furthermore, FAN can help organisations reduce capital and operating costs by consolidating branch office IT infrastructure, eliminating cost of remote data backup, and centralising file storage. Organisations will be able to provide greater compliance with regulatory and business governance through simple centralised file access management.

IT administrators will be able to perform file migrations whenever and wherever needed, eliminating downtime and helping to ensure business continuance. And FAN can also help improve work efficiency and productivity, as file location and movement will become transparent and inconsequential to users throughout the entire enterprise.

Addressing file data management challenges

Revolutionary storage technologies have emerged to address file data management challenges, including Global Namespace. The technology allows users to access files without knowing their location, just as they access web sites without knowing their IP addresses. A namespace also enables administrators to aggregate file storage across heterogeneous, geographically distributed storage devices and to view and manage it as a single file system.

When users select a file from the namespace, a request is sent from the client machine to the namespace server. The namespace server then provides file location information back to the client machine, and redirects the client to the file in its physical location. Clients view and access files through the namespace and the entire process is instantaneous and transparent.

A Global Namespace is invaluable for managing user home directories in Windows environment, sharing data across multiple departments, optimising Microsoft Exchange usage, lifecycle management of reference data, and managing web site data.

With the increasing focus on file-based data and the emergence of FANs, IT organisations should begin to consider what services and technology infrastructures they need to continue their business growth. FAN can help streamline management efficiency while securing data and providing an impressive ROI for years to come.

- Damian Ryan, Sales Manager – File Business Unit, Asia Pacific/Japan, Brocade

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