White Paper - HP's Network Attached Storage Solutions

Figure 2 When a general-purpose server fails, all services it was running are made
unavailable. If a NAS device fails, only that particular service stops functioning.
All other services on the network remain available.
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NAS Delivers superior reliability
General-purpose servers running network
operating systems are complex because
they run applications in addition to providing
storage. A general-purpose server holds its
operating systems on a mechanical hard
disk, which combined with its functional
complexity, leads to more opportunity for
failure. If a general-purpose server crashes,
an organization’s data is inaccessible in an
instant, severely impacting users’ productivity.
NAS devices are optimized for a single
function–storage. By focusing on this
specialized task, a NAS device has fewer
points of failure, making it a more reliable
storage solution. A NAS device’s operating
systems is stored in Flash memory, making
it very reliable. If a NAS device does fail, it
only impacts the file access on that device
and not other devices on the network. NAS
devices also have built-in redundancy
features to protect against failure and
downtime. (See figure 2)
Provide an easy way to expand storage
Administrators increasingly deal with user
demand for more disk space and easy access
to stored information in order to increase
productivity. This often requires that
administrators take the time to add
additional disks to existing servers or to
set up a new server to handle the need.
If storage is added to a general-purpose
server, user productivity is further hindered
while the server is upgraded.
NAS devices are ideal for expanding storage
space. Placing a NAS device on the network
instantly provides additional storage to a
workgroup. Users simply map a drive to the
new NAS resource using a standard tool,
such as Windows Explorer. The installation
takes only a few minutes and provides
instant storage expansion with very little
investment of time and money.
Optimize performance in switched-network
environments
A common issue with any network is high
traffic. This traffic negatively impacts data
access time and ultimately slows user
productivity. In an effort to address this
issue, general-purpose servers have
traditionally been placed on a high-speed
segment or the backbone of a network
to handle the intense amount of traffic.
Unfortunately, this can cause a lot of stress
to network backbones that are not optimized
for intensive data transfers.
Because NAS devices are designed so they
can be directly attached anywhere in a
network, they can be placed on the local
segment accessed most frequently (see
figure 3). Placing a NAS device closer to
users offloads network traffic that otherwise
would have gone through the general-purpose
server. Everyone benefits from improved
access time and network throughput. In
addition, because network resources are
being used more appropriately and effectively,
general-purpose server efficiency is increased
so it can process other requests with greater
speed.