"In the last five years, applications running on servers have become critical to businesses. But we end up with with too many data touch points to manage efficiently. The solution is to install a Storage Area Network. For many businesses iSCSI is the way to go." David Dale, industry evangelist at Network Appliance.

8 reasons why businesses should deploy iSCSI Storage Area Networks

* Lower the total cost of ownership by building upon your existing Ethernet network.

* Keep training and management costs low by using familiar TCP/IP networking technology.

* Reliability is kept high by using proven Ethernet teehnology. Ethernet cabling, switches and routers are all very reliable and very affordable

* The switched architecture of SANs allows IT managers to quickly expand storage capacity, add mirrored drives, and add new backup devices without shutting down applications or the network.

*Data can be accessed remotely and over long distances using standard Internet protocols.

* Cost effective. By pooling storage among servers you eliminate the problem having to add storage to one server when other servers are way under capacity.

* Rides the price/performance improvement trends of Ethernet.