What is the best storage solution for SMBs facing unpredictable data growth-all while providing adequate data protection and right-now access to critical files for users? Of the three most common storage architectures, direct attached storage (DAS), network attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SAN), NAS should be the first choice for most SMBs.

Affordable, Simple

NAS offers affordability of 10GB Ethernet with developments like SCSI over IP (iSCSI). Furthermore, NAS devices communicate over a NFS and CIFS Fibre Channel while SAN devices transmit block-level data over FCP (Fibre Channel Protocol). Nearly any IT administer can make connections over a LAN or WAN to the NAS data files. With SANs, users are limited to servers using SCSI Fibre connectivity, while NAS configurations offer wider data file sharing over both Windows and Unix operating systems.

NAS should be connected in the network where sufficient bandwidth supports the traffic generated by high data volume. NAS is an ideal solution for file centralization amongst corporate users, but for most midsize to enterprise companies running disk-intensive applications and that want enterprise-wide storage centralization for their campus environment, a SAN is the solution.

Identifying the Need

In a recent blog post, Defining the ideal attributes for effective SMB storage, Bill Mottram identified the key storage issues for SMBs. I think his summary provides a perfect starting point for this discussion. Below is Mr. Mottram's list of SMB storage attributes excerpted from his post.

Simplicity: The concern that regularly percolates to the top is ease of install, and ease of normal daily use. If the complexity exceeds the capabilities of the resources available then failure is unavoidable. This suggests that the elimination of operational complexity is a must.

Affordability: Budget dollars are scarce so an affordable acquisition cost and low operational costs are critical. Flexibility and transparent upgradability directly impact operational and capital expenditures. If purchases can be delayed until needed, hence avoiding the costly practice of buying forward then significant savings can be realized.

Scalability: Any solution must be readily scalability in capacity and performance to accommodate data growth. It must also be scalable in time meaning that an existing investment can be "transparently" upgraded with new technology as it becomes available.

Flexibility: Flexibility protects the initial investment and is a key characteristic of a "buy as needed" solution.

Reliability: The burden of maintainability should be on the shoulders of the "wannabe" SMB solution vendors. Self-maintaining and self-healing technologies are a key characteristic of the ideal SMB storage solution and are a must for any meaningful SMB solution.

Data Integrity: While the value and criticality of business data is independent of enterprise size, the severity of the consequences of data loss or corruption could be significantly different. Data protection technologies and methodologies that protect against data loss or compromised data integrity are a must for large and small enterprises, but again operational simplicity for the SMB is key.

Appropriate Performance: While SMB's may not have the aggressive performance demands common in large enterprise tier 1 transactional environments, they do have data access and data delivery requirements (IOPS and bandwidth) that have to match their business needs. In other words what they are looking for is appropriate performance, however that may be measured.

Here are my Top 5 reasons NAS is the right choice for SMBs

1.    Lower-cost solution
a.    Leverage existing investment in Ethernet. 10Gb Ethernet is fast enough for most SMB applications and supports iSCSI.
b.    In-house IT generalists probably sufficient to administer/manage NAS.
2.    iSCSI allows NAS appliances to mimic some SAN-like functionality
a.    iSCSI has very low infrastructure or hardware requirements. Usually an industry-standard gigabit or 10Gb network card and switch will work. This gives many NAS devices the ability to act as an iSCSI SAN.
3.    Perform more advanced tasks
a.    A NAS device works at the file level, while a SAN operates at the block level. For users needing access to files, NAS makes sense. Database and application servers requiring block-level data can be supported with iSCSI SAN solution, as mentioned above.
b.    Depending upon the file system in use, NAS lets users perform more advanced tasks, such as specify usage quotas, enforce security constraints, perform file indexing, and the other tasks. Your operating system or your NAS appliance's operating system then allows those files to be shared on the network.
4.    Purpose-built for SMBs with value-added features.
a.    NAS appliances are designed for sharing files to networked clients. But most also offer other features, such as multi-protocol file sharing, some kind of backup support, and rich file management tools like advanced quotas and utilization reporting. For most SMBs, a NAS solution makes perfect sense.
5.    Clear growth roadmap for storage
a.    Virtualization: Since NAS appliances are designed to serve as a network drive, the popularity of virtualization is bringing its capabilities to the fore once again. That's because is far more efficient to use a networked drive to store user files within a virtual server. Plus, frequently changing user files will tend to degrade performance and complicate backup on a virtual server. However, getting a virtual server to map user partitions or folders to a NAS take care of this situation.
b.    NAS gateways: Users are no longer faced with an either/or situation when deciding what storage technology to choose. NAS gateways are a fairly new breed of device that behave much like SAN-attached file server, but with improved performance and more advanced user management. Usually a NAS gateway will not have any storage, and instead will use your SAN to provide the raw storage space and while intelligently serving files across your network. So when your organization does deploy truly demanding server applications such as large databases, mail servers, and virtualization hosts-you can scale up to a SAN while still utilizing NAS devices.

For most SMB needs, I recommend the following NAS systems by HP (NYSE:HPQ). You can visit http://www.shopricom.com/AP803A to learn more about these products.