The problem for a growing company with expanding applications and a burgeoning, mobile user base is simple. It needs more data storage capacity, but it also needs to provide users with speedy and reliable access to that data. It needs to make sure its application servers aren't overburdened with file requests. Perhaps it is collecting information about its Web site's users and their behavior and preferences. While a server can offer a large amount of requested data, its primary task is to serve and host applications.
Servers can become overburdened with requests for the data on their attached storage devices.
File serving and its associated drain on processing resources tax the server and make it more difficult for it to carry out its primary function. This problem intensifies as more data is stored and requested, an inevitable and increasingly exponential development. In addition, with server-attached storage, that is, with data files becoming associated with a particular server, there arises the likelihood that the same file might be stored redundantly on several servers, or worse, that versioning of that file becomes cumbersome to track. So the preferable approach is to offload the data storage and fulfillment requirement from the application server onto a separate device or series of devices. Alvarado compares networked storage to the development of routing.