Linux installations in general are growing at twice the rate of Windows 2000 installations, but the adoption rate for Linux-based SANs is many times less than that of Windows 2000 or any other Unix variant, such as Solaris. Having entirely Linux-based SANs may still be a dream, because SAN vendors have not fully adopted Linux as a viable product platform. Storage vendors are reluctant to port to Linux because storage organizations cannot agree on interoperability standards between operating systems and SAN protocols. A SAN removes storage traffic such as backup data from the production network and puts it on a dedicated storage network. This act decreases a production network's overall load while increasing application availability.
SANs let IT planners proactively allocate logical storage to servers.
Storage organizations such as SNIA and the Fibre Channel Alliance have had the task of creating SAN standards. One big debate in the SAN community is whether FC or Ethernet will be the standard SAN protocol. For now, FC and Ethernet must coexist. SAN vendors and customers need to choose which protocol they want. The debate for a standard SAN protocol has also resulted in different manufacturers making products that do not interoperate.