What are the benefits of shared serial-attached SCSI?
You either have storage that is directly attached and internal to the server, or you have storage that is directly attached and external and shared. Normally, when you think about shared storage, it’s a SAN. Shared SAS is an alternative. The benefits include simplified management, simplified backup and improved utilization. Virtual servers, whether you are using VMware, Hyper-V or Xen, require shared storage. If you are going to use VMotion for live migration of a virtual machine from one physical machine to another, those physical machines require shared storage. Is shared serial-attached SCSI more affordable than a SAN? In general, yes, it should be cheaper. However, it is limited in distance. But most servers today come with SAS on the motherboard, so there is the potential that you won’t need a SAS adapter. Depending on the implementation, shared SAS storage from companies such as Dell, HP, IBM, Oracle/Sun and others has the potential to be more affordable than iSCSI at low-end, sm
