Enterprise Storage Types and Functional Scenarios

Enterprise data storage needs have expanded as data plays an increasingly valuable role in business. A good data storage solution is essential to security and success. Click and learn more.

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Updated by Iris Lee on 2024/01/24

Table of contents
  • What is enterprise storage?

  • Enterprise storage benefits

  • 4 Types of enterprise data storage products

  • Choose an enterprise data backup solution

  • Conclusion

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Today’s enterprises have to deal with increasing data storage needs, which often include business-critical data, customer information, product information and other confidential data. As a result, organizations need more reliable, efficient, and flexible storage products to manage and protect the data. This article introduces some of the major enterprise storage products, including SAN, NAS, DAS, and RAID.

What is enterprise storage?

Enterprise storage is a centralized repository for business information that provides common data management, protection and data sharing functions through connections to computer systems.

To put it simply, enterprise storage is a data storage system with characteristics that allow businesses to save and retrieve data effortlessly across many computer platforms. Hundreds of terabytes of data can be stored on an ideal business storage system, together with a high number of users, without the need for a lot of cabling or additional subsystems.

Enterprise storage benefits

There are certain benefits that enterprise storage systems have.

High availability

Reliable backup and disaster recovery

Convenient data sharing

Centralized administration

Remote support.

4 Types of enterprise data storage products

Before you select the proper storage for business data, you should know its advantages and disadvantages and here are 4 types of common enterprise storage.

1. Storage Area Network (SAN)

SAN is designed specifically for enterprise-level data storage. It provides high-speed, high-capacity, and highly reliable data storage by connecting storage devices to servers via high-speed network connections. 

SAN usually consists of multiple disk arrays that are connected to servers via high-speed networks such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI. This type of storage can provide high performance and capacity, which is also flexible and scalable, allowing more storage capacity to be added easily. In addition, SAN can also ensure data security by data mirroring and backup.

2. Network-Attached Storage (NAS)

NAS can provides file storage over a network attachment. It is typically a lightweight, low-cost solution for small to medium-sized enterprises or departmental-level applications.

Unlike SAN, NAS uses standard network protocols, such as TCP/IP or NFS, to connect storage devices to servers or workstations in a network. This type of storage is very easy to install and manage and can provide an efficient, reliable and flexible storage solution. Similar to SAN, NAS can also protect data through backup and mirroring.

3. Direct-Attached Storage (DAS)

DAS is a storage device that attaches directly to a server, usually using a SAS or SCSI interface. It can provide high performance and high-capacity storage, but is not as scalable and flexible as SAN and NAS.

DAS is typically used for applications that require high-speed reading and writing of data, such as video editing and graphics processing. Because DAS is directly attached to the server, it can provide very high performance, but requires additional management and maintenance. However, DAS does not have the function of data redundancy and backup, so additional data backup and mirroring is required to protect the data.

4. Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)

RAID is a type of storage that provides higher performance and greater reliability by combining multiple hard disks. It provides hardware-level data redundancy and backup to protect data from damage or loss.

RAID is typically implemented in hardware or software, such as RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 6. This type of storage is ideal for enterprises that require high levels of data integrity and security, but requires additional management and maintenance.

In the modern business environment, enterprises need more reliable, efficient and flexible storage products to manage and protect data. SAN, DAS, NAS, and RAID, each storage solution has its own unique benefits and application scenarios. Enterprises need to choose the most appropriate storage product to manage and protect their data based on their needs and budget.

Choose an enterprise data backup solution

To keep data safe in storage and guarantee business continuity, enterprises should have a professional data backup solution.

Vinchin Backup & Recovery is a professional enterprise solution which supports data backup of VM like VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, XenServer, XCP-ng, oVirt, RHV, OpenStack, etc. and other data like database, NAS, file server, etc.

You can store the backup data to storage like the local partition or disk, logical volume, local directory, Fiber Channel Storage Area Network (FC SAN) storage, iSCSI storage, NFS storage, and CIFS storage, etc.

In addition, Vinchin Backup & Recovery provides ransomware protection to data backup stored in DAS, making sure your backup data is immutable from ransomware.

A user-friendly web console will let you easily set up VM backup plan with a bunch of advanced and effective features, including faster incremental backup with CBT/SpeedKit (CBT Alternative), data compression and deduplication, BitDetector, etc.

To start data backup with Vinchin solution, you just need to:

1. Go to VM backup page to start creating a new backup job.

2. Select the virtual machines you wish to backup.

select vmware

3. Select the backup storage.

select the backup storage

4. Select backup strategies.

select strategies

5. Review and confirm the job settings.

6. Finally submit the job.

submit the job

There is a 60-day full-featured free trial of Vinchin Backup & Recovery. Just download and quickly deploy it to protect your data right now.

Conclusion

Data management is becoming more and more important for any business success. Every enterprise has different storage requirements and needs. Thus, it is very important for every enterprise to select the right storage and backup solution. If you have any data backup and protection requirements, Vinchin Backup & Recovery is always a good choice that can satisfy all your needs.

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