'The difference between SAN and NAS is blurring'

Ranked among the top five storage vendors in the country, Network Appliance

is trying to redefine the concept of network storage. Having made inroads into

new economy companies in India over the last five years, the company is now

targeting large storage users in the banking and telecom segments. These

traditional enterprises, which have large deployments of high-cost multi-vendor

storage platforms, are still struggling with issues of interoperability and

achieving optimum performance levels. In an interview to Dataquest, Network

Appliance director (enterprise solutions) Bruce Clarke explains how the

solutions to these issues could lie with his company

On the evolution of the storage industry...



I have been in this industry for about 18 years now and technology has moved

very rapidly. Not too long ago, 10 MB space was considered enough and today, we

are talking of terabytes. Storage architecture has also evolved. Although a

majority of enterprises still use the Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) model, the

market is shrinking. Network storage, both SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS

(Network Attached Storage), are growing. But I personally believe that NAS will

gradually take over SAN by 2005.

On the popular belief that SAN is more powerful than other storage

options...



That is the general perception, but that is not true. Most people believe

that NAS is a low-end solution not suitable for OLTP and database applications.

But we are trying to refute that perception. NAS costs about 3/4th of a SAN and

can deliver the same level of performance. In all our implementations, we haven’t

lost even a single performance benchmark to SAN.

On everyone talking about SAN…



I think enterprises need to be educated about the technology. Because it is

a relatively new concept, users are not even clear on the factors that should be

considered while buying it. While SAN works on a fiber channel network, NAS is

based on Gigabit Ethernet. Then there are some differences in the switches they

use. But in no way does that indicate a performance variation.

On dealing with issues like interoperability and handling high-volume

transactions...



We have a range of technology solutions that work very well with all kinds

of applications. In fact, interoperability could be more of an issue with SAN,

which is heading towards ISCSI technology. Having multiple vendors may create

islands of storage that don’t talk to each other. NAS, on the other hand, is

faster to implement and easier to manage.

On the large customers in India, and the kind of solutions they are opting

for...



Our top clients in India include Texas Instruments, GE Capital, Times

Internet, Kotak Mahindra, Cisco, Intel and Motorola to name a few. As a vendor,

we have to fulfil whatever our customers ask for, whether it is SAN or NAS. We

supply both.

On whether the focus of the company shouldn’t be more on banking and

telecom, given the fact that these are major growth drivers for storage...



I agree we have been at a bit of a disadvantage where these segments are

concerned. Most of the companies in these sectors have long-standing

relationships with vendors such as IBM and HP who have been providing them with

a whole range of other products whereas we are focused only on storage. So, they

are a bit conservative when it comes to buying products from new companies. Even

if they like our solutions they are very particular about studying references

and similar implementation sites before they place large orders. So we get stuck

in bureaucratic hassles. Moreover, till recently we had been getting good

business from the other segments, we didn’t really focus on the traditional

sector. Now the ongoing recession has forced us to rethink and strategize. We

will now have to intensify our thrust on these enterprises.

On the company’s business strategy, and whether any alliances are on the

anvil...



We have been following an indirect business model worldwide and it has

worked well for us. We have been operating through resellers. In India, we have

a partnership with Wipro and Apara. We are looking at other alliances as well.

It could help if we can partner with an end-to-end solutions provider. That way

we could easily tap large customers who look for a wider range of offering from

a single source. But the problem is that most of such solution providers have

their own storage products. So nothing has worked out so far.

On the direction that the storage space is heading in...



I feel that storage requirements will continue to grow. However, with the

economic downturn still to go away, budgets have become stringent. Companies are

being forced to take a re-look at their expenses and cut costs. The perception

that expensive technology will necessarily deliver, has to change. The

difference between SAN and NAS is blurring. Even solution providers will be

compelled to create more cost-effective solutions that are easier to implement

and manage.

SHWETA VERMA in New Delhi