Here you’ll find a glossary of often-used SAN and cloud storage terms related to data protection, data migration, and overall data mobility.

Block data migration – the process by which mission-critical data is moved from its current location to a new location, a single event that typically occurs when an organization changes the storage location of its database or application or introduces a new environment

Block data mobility – refers to solutions that enable organizations to continuously move data between locations in near real-time, required in multi-cloud environments or when the organization has mission-critical data stored in multiple locations

DAS (Direct Attached Storage) – block storage directly attached to the computer accessing it, as opposed to storage accessed over a network such as iSCSI or fiber channel

Hybrid clouds – combining a private cloud environment and a public cloud by allowing data and applications to be shared between them

IaaS (infrastructure as a service) – delivers infrastructure services like storage through a cloud model and whose business model enables organizations to “pay-as-you-go” for IT infrastructure

IQN (iSCSI Qualified Name) – the unique name and address assigned to every element in an iSCSI network – not linked to an IP address, it’s a logical name with specific formatting criteria

iQoS (Intelligent Quality of Service) – Cirrus Data’s proprietary Quality of Service adaptation for CMC – it automatically throttles back the migration speed when the source volume becomes more active, and opens it up when the source volume is less active

LUN (logical unit number) – an essential element in block storage, it’s a unique number created to reference logical disks on a SAN (storage area network) whose primary use is to specify storage devices

Multi-cloud infrastructure – when organizations rely on more than one cloud computing service – typically, this means a business uses several public infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environments, such as Oracle Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or Amazon Web Services (AWS)

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) – a family of specifications that define how host software communicates with non-volatile memory across multiple transports like PCI Express (PCI-E), RDMA, TCP and more; it is the industry standard for solid state drives (SSDs) in all form factors (U.2, M.2, AIC, EDSFF)

PaaS (platform as a service) – the next step in cloud services for many organizations, it delivers all the benefits of IaaS where users manage the applications and services they develop, while the cloud provider takes care of the rest including middleware, development tools, business intelligence (BI) services, database management systems, and more

Private cloud – a cloud environment dedicated only to one user – typically located within the company’s firewall and traditionally located at the end-user’s on-premises location

SAN (storage area network) – the specialized computer network designed for storage devices – provides access to an organization’s block-level data storage

WWPN (​​World Wide Port Name) – the unique identified assigned to each Fiber Channel port, important because it enables the identification storage system adapters and host target IDs