Fri 12 May 2006
What’s a Storage Grid?
Posted by GridGuy (Bruce Moxon of NetApp) under Grid Defs and Refs , Storage

So, is there such a thing as a “Storage Grid”? And, if so, what is it?
I contend that a Storage Grid is indeed a useful architectural concept.
The usual definition of “Grid” is more than the “network architecture” used to connect components together. “Grid” really is the concept of an infrastructure (not just wires) into which a variety of devices (appliances) can plug to provide network-based services to applications. I often use the following definitions of Grid when talking with enterprise-oriented customers …
Cross-application (enterprise-wide), holistic IT model based on complete virtualization of underlying resources (virtual everything).
A heterogeneous environment that supports distributed application deployment, execution, management, and monitoring
In which case we can talk about the Storage Grid being a virtualization of underlying storage resources that provides a range of services to applications – data storage, data management, replication, backup/recovery, compliance, … at different performance levels and price points. Throw in transparent data migration across backend tiers, and you have the Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) story.

A very interesting Grid Computing Defined is here.