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Tom Clark is one of most lucid, current writers on storage networking topics.
His books on Designing Storage Area Networks and IP SANS are good introductions
to these topics. His latest book, Storage Virtualization (2005 Addison
Wesley press), provides a much-needed Rosetta Stone for interpreting
and putting into perspective the various meanings for this much ballyhooed
concept.
The book gives a good overview of files and records, basic storage device
and system architecture, and storage interconnects. It also provides a
guide to techniques for virtualization as well as in many uses to which
storage virtualization can be used. He gives us a detailed description
of various paths to storage virtualization including virtualization at
the host, at the storage target, as well as in the storage network fabric.
The book also discusses specialized virtualization appliances and virtualization
services such as pooling heterogeneous storage assets, mirroring, point-in-time
snapshots, and hierarchical storage management (also known as ILM). Clark
covers more advanced topics such as virtual tape, virtualization and storage
automation and finally storage as a utility. He also provides descriptions
of numerous commercial solutions where appropriate. His description of
the fiber application interface standard (FAIS) in chapter 8 is the best
I has seen.
This book is accessible to several levels of readers from undergraduate
and graduate students, IT administrators, as well as storage professionals.
It will serve as a good textbook which I recommend for inclusion in a class
covering advanced network storage concepts. The book is organized into
14 short chapters, each followed by a comprehensive review at the end of
the chapters. It also includes useful appendices vendors for various storage
virtualization solutions, short observations and speculation by various
analysts and practicing storage professionals, and a comprehensive glossary.
Although there are a few grammatical errors, they do not lead to serious
misunderstanding of the excellent content. Overall, I highly recommend
this book and enjoyed reading it.Tom Clark is one of most lucid, current
writers on storage networking topics. His books on Designing Storage Area
Networks and IP SANS are good introductions to these topics. His latest
book, Storage Virtualization (2005 Addison Wesley press), provides a much-needed
Rosetta Stone for interpreting and putting into perspective the various
meanings for this much ballyhooed concept.
The book gives a good overview of files and records, basic storage device
and system architecture, and storage interconnects. It also provides a
guide to techniques for virtualization as well as in many uses to which
storage virtualization can be used. He gives us a detailed description
of various paths to storage virtualization including virtualization at
the host, at the storage target, as well as in the storage network fabric.
The book also discusses specialized virtualization appliances and virtualization
services such as pooling heterogeneous storage assets, mirroring, point-in-time
snapshots, and hierarchical storage management (also known as ILM). Clark
covers more advanced topics such as virtual tape, virtualization and storage
automation and finally storage as a utility. He also provides descriptions
of numerous commercial solutions where appropriate. His description of
the fiber application interface standard (FAIS) in chapter 8 is the best
I has seen.
This book is accessible to several levels of readers from undergraduate
and graduate students, IT administrators, as well as storage professionals.
It will serve as a good textbook which I recommend for inclusion in a class
covering advanced network storage concepts. The book is organized into
14 short chapters, each followed by a comprehensive review at the end of
the chapters. It also includes useful appendices vendors for various storage
virtualization solutions, short observations and speculation by various
analysts and practicing storage professionals, and a comprehensive glossary.
Although there are a few grammatical errors, they do not lead to serious
misunderstanding of the excellent content. Overall, I highly recommend
this book and enjoyed reading it.
Tom Coughlin
President
Coughlin Associates
www.tomcoughlin.com |
