The Rise of Server SAN

Server SAN is software-led storage built on commodity servers with directly attached storage (DAS). Wikibon believes Server SAN is poised to disrupt traditional storage architectures over the next decade. As enterprise organizations begin to replicate the infrastructure of hyperscale giants, software will lead a transition where storage function migrates closer to the host. This will occur over a decade while stacks are made more robust and mature. Fundamental to this shift will be the return of direct attached storage (DAS) devices with high speed interconnects and intelligent software to manage coherency and performance. DAS pools will begin to replicate SAN and NAS functionality at much lower cost and provide compelling economic advantages to enterprise customers. In many important application segments (e.g., high performance databases), Server SAN will offer superior performance, functionality and availability over traditional SAN & NAS.