Still, tape alone does not a storage system make. Tape's shortcomings include
media costs, capacity limits and limited shelf life, as well as the time
required for backup and restore.
Improved data continuity often comes in the form of remote backup, which is
often accomplished over a company's Internet connection. Although one of the
most expensive forms of data protection--LiveVault's Online Backup and Recovery
Service, for example, costs $1,250 per month for up to 50 GB of protected server
data, making one month of service as costly as some backup appliances with
equivalent capacity--remote storage replication overcomes most of the weaknesses
associated with conventional storage-continuity solutions and is impervious to
most threats to an organization's data store.
A RAID array is a collection of hard disks ganged together to create a
storage space that leverages striping or mirroring technology to provide both
capacity and redundancy. Conventional RAID arrays relied on SCSI drives for
speed. But today's ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) drives are fast enough
for use in low- and midrange storage arrays, and the new SATA (serial ATA)
drives are well-suited for use in RAID arrays because their point-to-point
topology eliminates bus sharing and delivers 1.5 Gbps of bandwidth to each
drive. A switch lets the SATA controller communicate simultaneously with all the
drives, and the system scales up linearly as drives are added. Other RAID
options, including Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel, rapidly increase storage
capacity and throughput, but also increase costs.
Built-in redundancy--duplicate power supplies and interfaces, for example--is
critical to a quality RAID array. The array should be connected directly to a
server and controlled by two separate HBAs (host bus adapters), so the storage
system stays alive even if one HBA fails. The server also features built-in
redundancy in the form of multiple power supplies, cooling fans, processors and
memory banks.
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