Applications

iSCSI and IP-SAN's are ideally suited for applications where reliability, flexibility, and scalability are required, but cost is a factor.

Small Office / Satellite Office Server
iSCSI storage is the perfect storage solution for small office servers. Whether it's a general purpose file server, or an application-specific server such as an Exchange server, iSCSI provides an economical and scalable solution. Using iSCSI storage targets in a satellite office enables a backup server in the central office to log into the satellite office's iSCSI target and backup its data, providing an additional layer of security as well as protection in case of a disaster at the satellite office.

Disk-based backup
Backing up to disk is more reliable than tape and costs less. With iSCSI storage, you can have large amounts of storage capacity which allows you to perform data backups, and keep those backups online. This way, restoring files from disk is faster and easier than having to dig through old tapes and hoping that the tape media is still good.

Near-line Storage
Near-line storage is for data that may not be needed on a daily basis, but will need to be accessed periodically. In this manner, iSCSI may co-exist in a large enterprise with Fibre Channel storage, where Fibre Channel may be deployed for heavily used transactional databases, and iSCSI is used for data where Fibre Channel performance is not needed.

Clustering for Server Failover
Used in conjunction with a cluster-capable operating system, such as Microsoft® Windows Server 2003, iSCSI enables the creation a low-cost cluster which provides for server failover through the use of shared storage.

Video Surveillance
Data rate and retention time requirements for video surveillance data are increasing, with the results being an explosive increase in the amount of data capacity needed, and an increased strain on IT budgets. In addition to lowering the acquisition cost of storage, iSCSI also provides an easy-to-manage solution that is flexible and scalable, making it the perfect storage solution for video surveillance systems.