Storagesystem

Storagesystem refers to the collection of hardware and software components that provide persistent data storage for computer systems. A storage system coordinates the capture, organization, protection, and retrieval of data, and may span local devices and remote resources.

Storage can be broadly categorized by access patterns and location: primary storage (RAM/cache) for active data, and secondary storage (non-volatile) for long-term retention. Among secondary storage, block storage (raw disks presented to hosts as blocks), file storage (hierarchical files and directories), and object storage (unstructured data with metadata) are common. Access can be direct-attached, network-attached (NAS), or in a storage-area network (SAN).

NAS provides file-level access over network protocols such as NFS and SMB; SAN typically uses block protocols like iSCSI or Fibre Channel to connect servers to storage arrays, often with high performance and low latency.

Key features include data redundancy and protection (RAID, replication, erasure coding), snapshotting and backups, deduplication and compression, and disaster recovery. Storage systems are often managed via centralized software or hypervisor-integrated tools, and may support virtualization and cloud integration.

Emerging trends include software-defined storage, converged and hyper-converged infrastructure, and cloud storage integration. Hybrid approaches combine on-premises and cloud resources to balance performance, cost, and resilience.