BlogData centres
Storage for in-house systems: SAN, NAS or local disks
By Vicky Ogola, Senior ICT Consultant 1 min read
Shared storage enables failover and central backup; local disks are simple. Match storage to availability needs.
Storage choices affect performance, availability and recovery.
Local disks
Simple and fast, but data is tied to one server.
NAS
Network-attached storage serves files over the network — good for shared folders and backups.
SAN
Storage area networks provide block storage to servers and support virtualisation clusters with failover.
Hyperconverged options
Combine compute and storage across several servers.
Protect data
Use RAID or equivalent, snapshots and separate backups.
Plan capacity
Track growth and plan expansion before storage fills.
Think about performance
Databases and virtual machines need fast storage with low latency, while archives and backups can use larger, slower disks. Solid-state storage is now common for active workloads, with high-capacity disks for long-term data.
Plan recovery
Know how long it would take to restore your largest data set, and make sure that fits your recovery objectives.
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About the author
Vicky Ogola
Senior ICT Consultant
Vicky Ogola writes about network design, connectivity, data centres and the infrastructure that business systems depend on.