In this time of Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet, network enabled storage is leaping into new directions. This Whitepaper explores some of the advances in filesystems and storage technology that will propel high-performance computing into the next millennium and aims at being a field guide for enterprise storage managers. There is no question as to the importance of a file system. Operating systems must provide users with facilities for persistent storage and just as importantly management of data. Filesystems do just that; they allow users to organise, manipulate and access data usually presented to them through a container of data called a file. According to a recent IDC report Unix system managers added 110% more storage capacity in 1998 than in 1997. System managers interviewed by IDC report specific system capacity is doubling in 12 to 36 months. This is not surprising because the price-per-megabyte of disk-based storage systems is declining 40% per year. The ability of disk drive suppliers to double the storage capacity every 18 months while increasing performance and keeping prices nearly constant is fuelling the capacity growth. A tenfold price-per-megabyte decline since 1993 is opening new uses and demands on disk storage, its deployment, and IT management. "Storage must be viewed as a system as a whole that if managed properly delivers services, protects your data assets. Proper management should provide high availability access, performance, complete data security and provide for storage growth at a reasonable cost. [FC Assoc.)" Storage is more than just a collection of disks and tapes. Storage is something users want available at all times as an unlimited resource.
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