Just saw this on AJB (Amercia's JobBank)

[deadpoint]

storage area network.

san is basicly certeralized disk that you can attach multiple servers to 
via a FC (fiber channel) adaptors. the storage array itself is an 
extermely reliable piece of hardware, no single point of failure (2 of 
every component), very fast FC drives, etc. the disk can be carved up 
into blocks which can be made avialable to only those hosts that you've 
defigned. multiple hosts can ever use the same filesystems if you use 
cluster filesystems like XFS or AFS.

these are not cheap devices. you're looking at a starting price of about 
$100K, and that doesn't include fiber switches what run $10K per 8-port 
switch, and FC HBA's (host bus adapters) at $1250/card.

if anyone is looking for one of these drop me a line. my vender worked 
us a great deal on a hitachi 9570 last year and he might be able to do 
close for you. i'm serious!

Joe wrote:
> Can someone enlighten me as to what SAN is?
> 
> Joe
> 
> frank at mogosystems.com wrote:
> 
>> Essential Accountabilities: Ensure availability of Unix Servers and 
>> SAN attached
>>  
>>