DAS, NAS , SAN - Which Storage is Right for you?

With growing data volumes organization`s storage needs are growing exponentially. However the choice of right storage type of business can be tricky especially if you have never purchased network storage solutions for business use or you need business level storage due to growing data volumes.

When it comes to business data storage, you will need to make a choice between DAS (direct attached storage), (NAS) network attached storage, SAN (storage area networks) and Cloud storage solutions.

Which solution is appropriate for you comes down to basic criteria given as follows.

Key Criteria to Consider.

• Capacity: The first and most important thing to consider is how much data you want to store?

• Scalability: Consider your current and future data storage needs. Identify how much data you will need to store in next 5 to 10 years.

• Reliability: What level of reliability you are looking for; can your business survive without data, files or application? What is expected downtime and how much you can tolerate?

• Backup and Recovery: Do you have any data backup plan? How often you want back up your data? What would happen if you lost data?

• Performance:  Consider a number of employees that need to share data, access, and collaboration for files for in-house and remote job location.

• Budget:  What is your budget, how much can you spend on it?

• IT Staff and Resources: How much IT/Employees or dedicated staff you have to manage.

• DAS — Direct-Attached Storage.

It is fairly basic level storage that offers low maintenance and low costs solution. DAS is usually a part of the actual host computer or is directly connected to the host computer. This can simply be a hard drive (external or internal). It can be used as small or larger DAS storage units that can accommodate single to multiple disks in one enclosure. In case if you expect your storage needs grow in near future then it may not be the right solution for you because it has limited ability to grow and scale is very limited.

• When to Use?   DAS can be an ideal solution for small businesses that only need local data sharing; limited budgets to work with and have no IT support resources to maintain complex systems.

• When not to use?  It is not a good choice for businesses that are growing quickly, and higher scalability is required in addition to growing collaboration requirements for growing number of system users.

Whitehats offers network storage solutions in Dubai including DAS (Direct attached storage) that will help you to meet all your small business data storage needs.

• NAS — Network-Attached Storage.

NAS (Network attached storage) is a dedicated file serving and sharing solution that depends on a network. It offers better performance, reliability with features like RAID and scrapple (higher, flexible multi-drive workloads. It can also work as consolidating storage solution from DAS that has one centralized, shared storage system so it can provide money saving in long run, decrease confusion, and increase reliability in case of system failure or outage.

• When to use?  NAS offers perfect solutions for Small and Medium businesses that require storage with minimum maintenance requirements, reliable and flexible storage system.  It can also effectively address to scalability requirements, the growth of a number of users and storage needs.
• When not to use?  When you need to transfer block-level data supported by Fibre channel connections then it may not be an appropriate solution for you. Data transfer issues can be a major problem with NAS.

At Whitehats we offer reliable network storage solutions in Dubai, that also includes NAS (Network Attached Storage) solutions installed as per your specific requirements.

• SAN — Storage Area Network.

It is a high-performance storage system that effectively transfers block-level data between servers and storage devices. A most common place where it is used is in data centers, medium to large enterprises or virtual computing environments. It is designed for complex environments that support mission-critical applications.

• When to Use? It is an appropriate solution for block-level data sharing and mission-critical applications at data centers that perfectly match the needs of large-scale enterprises and organizations.

• When not to use?  It may require a lot of investments and is a sophisticated storage solution that should only be used for large-scale computing environments. Any small or medium size organization with limited budgets and few IT staff or resources will not need SAN.

At Whitehats, our SAN Solutions in Dubai are designed will provide access to you and your network users to consolidated data storage.

The choice of your network storage solution depends on the criteria that are most important for you. Once you know what you need, you can easily choose appropriate network storage solutions for your business. In case you need any help regarding selection, installation, and maintenance of your storage, you can contact us at +971 4 3382 500