6 - Data Storage

Abstract

Data storage is crucial as data is a central, vital element in business data processing. Data storage is characterized by several innovative architectural solutions. This richness of innovation occurs because a storage subsystem requires to run software offered by its vendor. No other software is required to run; therefore, no within-subsystem compatibility issues arise. The need to make information continuously available within a company or outside has made storage subsystems an essential component of servers. This chapter focuses on the issues of data storage, including data storage architecture options and the issues surrounding data backup and restoration. This chapter furthermore discusses about storage subsystems, architecture and functionality of centralized and distributed file systems with emphasis on network file system (NFS) and common internet file system (CIFS), optimization possibilities at the level of the file system and by new I/O architectures, and finally performance improvements available with parallelized file systems.