Exploration of Storage Architectures for Enterprise Network

One of the core challenges in enterprise networks (EN) is how to select and manage the data storage system (DSS). In this paper, we have explored the storage architectures, such as a directattached storage and consolidated servers, and centralized storage architectures, such as a storage area network (SAN), network attached storage (NAS) and hybrid storage system (HSS) for EN. We have formulated the selection and management of DSS as an optimization problem, where our framework generates alterative architectures serving DSS while sustaining or enhancing EN performance. A cost model is proposed to select DSS in a cost-effective manner. The extensive simulations have been carried out utilizing the co-simulation environment, which facilitates a fine-grain outcome in performance measurement of EN and DSS using: average response time, packet loss rate, throughput, average server's utilization and service's QoS threshold. The simulation results of EN comprising of 1750 clients and 105 servers illustrate a trade-off of 77% increased in DSS's throughput utilizing HSS, 36% with SAN and 23% with NAS. However, a slight increase in response time of 2% is observed with SAN due to its complex network infrastructure in comparison with other centralized storage systems.