Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, succinctly captures the key technologies that are driving the storage networking industry. Tom Clark's works are helping to educate the IT community to the benefits and challenges of shared storage and are recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand this exciting new technology.Fibre Channel SANs have become a mainstay at the backend of the biggest corporations on the planet. The second edition of Designing Storage Area Networks brings the next wave of connection (IP) points and management into context, helping the user to quickly understand all the benefits before them.Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, provides a practical roadmap through the ever-changing landscape of SAN technology. The new Fibre Channel, IP, and virtualization initiatives covered in this work will enable customers to implement comprehensive shared storage solutions that reduce management overhead and cost.Storage Area Networks (SANs) are now recognized as the preferred solution for fulfilling institutions' and enterprises' critical datastorage needs. Whether powered by Fibre Channel or TCP/IP and Gigabit Ethernet technology, SANs far exceed the capabilities of traditional storage access methods. SANs are quickly becoming the solution of choice for organizations that require high-volume data-handling capacity.Written for network developers, IT consultants, administrators, and managers, this updated and greatly expanded edition of the best-selling Designing Storage Area Networks goes far beyond a straight description of technical specifications and standards. The text offers practical guidelines for using diverse SAN technologies to solve existing networking problems in large-scale corporate networks. With this book you will learn how the technologies work and how to organize their components into an effective, scalable design. In doing so, you will discover today's best methods for managing storage area networks, including new troubleshooting techniques.Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, also features detailed case studies that demonstrate how SANs can solve a number of commonly encountered business challenges, including LAN-free and server-free tape backup, server clustering, and disaster recovery. As an information-systems professional, you must keep pace with this powerful, evolving technology.