Question: Part C: Business Report (10 pages max for body of the report)
(For structure and marking guidelines of the report see marking guidelines document)
NAS vs SAN vs CLOUD
After a number of business seminars dealing with the future adoption of technologies within the business framework the theme of remotes access to business data and process for flexible customer services was identified as a limiting factor in the current infrastructure design.
When the organisation started trading the networking and data management was implemented by individuals as a peer to peer solution. The limitation of this design became obvious in the early years and the organisation moved to a traditional 2 tier client server design which is still the major solution for most of the services. In order to move to a modern n-tier solutions the organisation is looking at possibility of moving to SAN or Cloud solutions.
In order to move forward you have been tasked with researching and providing detailed information to management to assist in their decision making process.
1. Currently the organisation data storage mechanism can be described as NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution. Research and describe NAS storage as a solution for data storage in a business network. Research and discuss any limitation in using NAS storage in organisation.
2. The other option proposed is to move to a SAN (Storage Area Networks) based solution for the sharing of data. Describe the SAN based solutions and their benefits for data sharing in an organisation compared to NAS.
3. If we were to adopt SAN solutions as a data store and access mechanism, discuss what changes would we have to conceder in the network infrastructure and design to get optimal use of the SAN solution.
4. Cloud based solution are a consideration especially as a lot of the management can be outsourced to the provider. We have the option of using either a Private, Public or a Hybrid cloud solution. Discuss the differences of the three cloud types with respect to outsourcing the management of the operations.
5. The organisation is planning on providing remote services to its employees and customers in the future. From the above research make a recommendation regarding the future use of storage solutions in the organisation. Clearly list and justify your arguments for the technology chosen.