Will cloud computing kill the storage area network?

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Chris Poelker.

The acceptance of server and storage virtualization has enabled a paradigm shift in how data center infrastructure is purchased and deployed. End user companies are migrating from purchasing separate physical servers connected to storage area networks (SANs) to more modular “reference architectures” which include every component required to run their applications.

Servers and storage were typically sold as separate IT infrastructure elements in the past, usually to different groups within the IT department, and usually under different parts of the IT budget. The move to the cloud has changed all of that. For example, one recent move by a major server and storage vendor enables its storage to directly connect to its blade servers, which may make a storage network unnecessary. You simply purchase the servers, storage and network together as a data center “building block” which converges everything together to make rolling infrastructure a one stop shopping experience…

Everything you need is provided by the modular converged infrastructure, which is now a simple building block for the data center. Traditional storage only vendors have seen the light and are now joining forces with the major network vendors to create the modular building blocks (what I call PODs) which include the storage as a part of the building block…

Read more from the source @ http://blogs.computerworld.com/data-storage/21360/will-private-cloud-kill-storage-area-network