In today’s terms, the technical description of a SAN (Storage Area Network) is a collection of computers and storage devices, connected over a high-speed optical network and dedicated to the task of storing and protecting data. In a nutshell, you use a SAN to store and protect data.  A SAN uses the SCSI (Small Computer Storage Interconnect) and FC (Fibre Channel) protocols to move data over a network and store it directly to disk drives in block format. Photo credit: Srini SAN Configuration Today, that high-speed network usually consists of fiber-optic cables and switches that use light waves to transmit data with a connection protocol known as Fibre Channel. (A protocol is a set of rules used by the computer devices to define a common communication language.) More and more, regular Internet protocol (IP)–based corporate networks, and even the Internet, are being used as the network part of a SAN.  Nowadays Internet is the part of SAN IP Networks IP netwo...