Hybrid Storage Appliances Coming

Technology recently acquired from String Bean Software will take the upcoming R2 version of Windows Storage Server 2003 beyond its predecessor’s role as a network attached storage (NAS) device. The technology, called WinTarget, allows other servers to connect to Windows Storage Server 2003-based storage over a storage area network (SAN) rather than with file-sharing protocols. This is important because many applications work poorly or not at all when accessing networked storage using file-sharing protocols, a limitation that keeps some customers from considering Windows Storage Server 2003 appliances to meet all of their data storage needs.

What Is WinTarget?

SANs enable servers to access one or more external, shared disk-storage arrays over a network protocol designed for transferring block-level disk data; for Windows and Unix/Linux servers this protocol is either Fibre Channel or Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI). Traditionally, these storage devices do not run a general purpose OS, such as Windows or Linux, but instead run a small hardware-specific OS tailored for their primary task of reading and writing block-level data to disk.