Stories by Robert Mitchell and Tamara Plakalo

TECHNOLOGY: NAS finds its niche

Network-attached storage (NAS) is quietly transitioning from an ad hoc, departmental storage add-on to a serious top-down enterprise storage resource. This highly reliable file server approach has always been relatively inexpensive and easy to configure and manage. But now, a single NAS server accommodates tens of terabytes of data, and NAS systems sport more efficient backup technology and support applications more efficiently over today's faster Gigabit Ethernet networks. What's missing? Better tools to manage across distributed NAS resources.