An alternative to NAS?

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mike.james

This follows on from a question I raised in another thread.
I have a network with 12T of storage sitting on local workstations.

The simple approach is to make sure all users store files on the NAS which
is backed up and therefore ignore
all of the local storage.

While I appreciate the obvious sense in this position I can' t help feel
that its a bit like the centralisation found in the days of the mainframe.
You don;t need a local CPU, we'll keep all the computing power here in this
big room....

Has anyone got any intelligent ways of making use of local (distributed)
storage other than simply using it as a way of getting the OS and
applications up and running?

mikej
 
Use it for whatever you want, but do be aware of the risks involved. In the
last thread you got a number of thoughtful and well-reasoned responses that
boil down to "local storage is insecure, difficult to back up and subject to
the abuse of end-users; central storage is secure, easily backed-up and
protected from the mistakes that careless users will make."

But if you insist, go ahead and store files on the local PCs. Just be
prepared for the consequences.

No one here that manages a business network is going to tell you that it's
fine to use those local hard drives for essential data because it simply is
not.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
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mike.james said:
This follows on from a question I raised in another thread.
I have a network with 12T of storage sitting on local workstations.

The simple approach is to make sure all users store files on the NAS which
is backed up and therefore ignore
all of the local storage.

While I appreciate the obvious sense in this position I can' t help feel
that its a bit like the centralisation found in the days of the mainframe.
You don;t need a local CPU, we'll keep all the computing power here in this
big room....

Has anyone got any intelligent ways of making use of local (distributed)
storage other than simply using it as a way of getting the OS and
applications up and running?

mikej
Click to expand...

Perhaps in the near future: distributed processing and grid computing is on
its way.
http://gridengine.sunsource.net/
http://www.datasynapse.com/solutions/arch.html
http://distrit.sourceforge.net/

In addition to Richard's post, there is more logic to centralized storage
than only the issue of centralized data backup.

A user can login from anywhere within the logical network and access his or
her data. This is a primordial consideration because thats the incentive the
user has to keep the data in a safe central location. No longer does a
system down or an alternate location mean a loss of productivity. For the
enterprise, thats a win-win scenario.

Should one of those client drives fail, the technician needs only change
drive, install / ghost the standard client desktop and join the network
(while the user is using an alternate station). Again, a win-win situation.

The partial consumption of the local 12T in storage is far, far behind in
the list of priorities. The extra local storage should say: this hardware
will be productive beyond its lifecycle because it has redundant storage
capacity. Win-win again.
 
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