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Use this handy cheat-sheet to help keep straight the evolving list of storage terminology.
- Direct-attached storage (DAS) Storage connected directly to a server.
- Fibre Channel An expensive short-distance networking technology used for building SANs.
- ATA (AT attachment) or IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) Traditional desktop and low-end server storage technology that includes the controlling circuitry for mass-storage devices as part of the devices. This technology is one of the standard ways of connecting hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and tape drives to a system.
- iSCSI A low-cost way to create SANs over IP networks.
- IP SAN A SAN built around the iSCSI protocol.
- Network-attached storage (NAS) A storage appliance that connects to the Ethernet network and provides file-level storage access.
- RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) The name for a number of different fault-tolerance schemes that use drive arrays.
- SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) The de facto standard for midrange and high-end server direct-attached storage.
- Serial ATA (SATA) A new low-cost storage standard with faster transfer speeds than IDE/ATA.
- Serial-attached SCSI A new high-performance SCSI standard. Products will appear late this year.
- Storage area network (SAN) Typically a Fibre Channel subnetwork of storage devices that can be shared by several servers.