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Storage protocols for block, file, and object storage
Evolutionary Theory
Current developments such as computational storage or storage class memory as future high-performance storage are receiving a great deal of attention, but you still must understand whether, and to what extent, block and file storage, storage area network (SAN), network-attached storage (NAS), object storage, or global clustered filesystems continue to provide the basis for the development of new technologies – especially to assess possible implications correctly for your own IT environment.
In the storage sector in particular, experts and manufacturers bandy about abbreviations and technical terms, and the momentum in the pace of development also seems undiminished. Above all, the speed at which innovations enter the market is surprising. On the other hand, the storage protocols that guarantee data access at the block or file level are extremely old, although they still provide the technological basis for being able to use data storage sensibly at all. At the same time, a number of new questions are emerging: Will there be a radical break in the transport layer at some point? Will we have to deal with more and more technology options that exist in parallel? To find an answer, an assessment of further development in storage protocols is helpful.
Block Storage as SAN Foundation
Classic block-level storage protocols are used for data storage on storage networks – typically Fibre Channel (FC) storage area network (SAN) – or cloud-based storage environments – typically Internet SCSI (iSCSI). Nothing works in the data center without block storage, but how does block storage itself work?
Storage data is divided into blocks that are assigned specific identifiers as separate units. The storage network then deposits the data blocks where it is most efficient for the respective application. When users subsequently request their data from a block storage system, the underlying storage
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