SANs provide the best interconnects, allowing storage mirroring, remote clustered storage, and other HA data protection solutions because of the performance and independence as a secondary data path. SANs do not impact the primary network or the servers and they provide redundancy. Data vaulting is the process of transferring data, usually for the purpose of archive or logging, to a remote site. SANs make a very efficient transmission medium. Interchange and disaster recovery operations are very similar and use SANs the same way, whether local or remote, just for different purposes.
SANs provide a very efficient pipe for moving data offsite or between sites.
The many facets of implementing SAN technology can be confusing and unclear as an IS group works through the issues of how to best implement a SAN architecture or even how to best build a mission-critical capable network environment. To solve this problem, a new industry organization has just been created, the Storage Networking Industry Association, SNIA The SNIA is chartered to create an international association of IT companies, Systems Integrators, and the vendor community. The SNIA's first objective is to create a forum, allowing the IT, system integrator, and vendor communities to work together to educate, train, and create the knowledge base that will result in implementation of storage networking. The SNIA's second objective is to define the specifications, infrastructures, and proposed standards for networked storage systems, including SANs, SAN Attached Storage, and Network Attached Storage. The SNIA is still in its formation phase, but will specifically address the areas outlined above.