SAS: The Emerging Storage Fabric (Spring 2012)

For building and maintaining enterprise storage, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) has long served as the foundation by providing a serviceable slot architecture which contributes to high availability, high reliability and a high degree of serviceability and usability. Due to the forward and backward compatible nature of the technology, SAS preserves the logical SCSI command set which most enterprise middleware is derived from. That’s particularly significant for CIOs and IT managers in terms of investment protection. It also helps to sustain a rich legacy of device types and data formats by providing an important element of continuity within the enterprise. It becomes especially important when realigning an information technology center to adapt to the dynamic needs of today’s emerging storage needs. Despite the changing requirements of new platforms, SAS maintains a flexible architecture that can expand and grow over time while continuing to protect the industry’s legacy storage investments.

Learning Objectives

Understand the basic capabilities of SAS, including is compatibility with SATA, that makes SAS the best device level interface for Enterprise class storage devices.
Gain insight on how SAS continues to be the primary building block for advanced storage solutions based in large part due to it’s architectural flexibility which provides for continuous technological advancements and further storage innovations.They will also learn about the market adoption timelines and scenarios for 12Gb/s SAS and why it’s significance to the “Emerging Storage Fabric” story.
See examples of how SAS is a potent connectivity solution especially when coupled with a SAS switching solutions. These innovative SAS configurations become a vehicle for low cost storage expansion, providing a central point for storage management and serviceability while supporting legacy enterprise investments.