Storage Systems: Not Just a Bunch of Disks Anymore
Erik Riedel · Queue · 2003
The concept of a storage device has changed dramatically from the first magnetic disk drive introduced by the IBM RAMAC in 1956 to today’s server rooms with detached and fully networked storage servers. Storage has expanded in both large and small directions. All use the same underlying technology but they quickly diverge from there. Here we will focus on the larger storage systems that are typically detached from the server hosts. We will introduce the layers of protocols and translations that occur as bits make their way from the magnetic domains on the disk drives and interfaces to your desktop.