The major advantage of iSCSI is that it can be deployed in the same manner as a fibrechannel network fabric without introducing new technology into the organisation. As iSCSI operates over IP on ethernet. This means it can be "translated" to run over LAN and MAN networks.

The purpose of both the Fibre SAN and the iSCSI San is that they act as a backend storage and backup to multiple servers. These servers typically comprise of application servers, such as databases, email and file servers. The important definition to make is that these networks are usually part of a client / server environment.

It is uncommon to use this hardware directly attached to clients with a human interface display. The exception is where enormous data quantities are needed to be displayed on a desktop. Such as might be seen in the seismic, survelliance and film industries. In this situation it could be the preferred option over using a network file system based solution.

Key Considerations

• Total Cost of Ownership
• Time to backup
• Time to restore
• Consolidation
• Hot online backup
• Media management
• LAN/SAN (LAN free)
• Serverless backup
• Snapshot backup
• Database backup specifics
• Replication
• Synchronisation
• LAN data compression
• Existing untapped capabilities in current infrastructure
• Retention needs
• Enterprise management
• Tape media costs
• Tape duplication
• Offsiting