Rating: 
Summary: Very Complete Reference Book. More than need be.
Review: Building Storage Networks is a very complete reference into storage. This book covers it all. If you know nothing about storage, by the time you get through the 590 pages you will have a complete knowledge of storage. The 'Blueprint' section is somewhat confusing, especially if you are not storage savvy. I have been building storage systems for several years now and had to read the blueprints several times to fully understand them. They could have been done better. Overall the book is good reference material, but it was not what I was expecting. To me, it appears the author started out with good intentions, but could not decide what 'extra' information could/should be left out. He could have just summarized some topics. There are numerous books on RAID, SCSI, etc that the author should have just referenced at the end of each chapter. This would have cut the size of book down considerably.
Rating: 
Summary: Building Storage Networks
Review: Every storage, SAN, and NAS executive, engineer, marketeer, sales person, administrator, Wall Street analyst, and investor should read this book. It is easy to read and comprehend while conveying remarkable depth of knowledge. The reader need not have a EE degree to understand how this technology works and is applied. The illustrations are crisp, clear, and easy to follow. Marc Farley cuts through the market hype and clearly articulates the facts about storage networking. "Building Storage Networks" is an outstanding resource for both the novice and the expert. I strongly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Building Storage Networks
Review: Every storage, SAN, and NAS executive, engineer, marketeer, sales person, administrator, Wall Street analyst, and investor should read this book. It is easy to read and comprehend while conveying remarkable depth of knowledge. The reader need not have a EE degree to understand how this technology works and is applied. The illustrations are crisp, clear, and easy to follow. Marc Farley cuts through the market hype and clearly articulates the facts about storage networking. "Building Storage Networks" is an outstanding resource for both the novice and the expert. I strongly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Crisp, Clear, Helpful
Review: Farley crisply defines terms, explains concepts, and walks the reader safely through the complex maze of storage networking. The pacing and tone makes it easy to move from basics to complex theory without bogging down or losing interst. Despite the formidable size of the book, I digested most of it in a seven hour flight to Europe. A must for IT managers, interesting reading for anyone remotely involved with storage issues.
Rating: 
Summary: Another rush job...
Review: It seems like too many technical books, especially those that
cover leading hot topics are rush rush rushed... This is
another one. The book is full of errors, omitions, redundant verbiage,
dis-organized presentations etc. Overall the book has the
feeling of one of those heavy PC/Windows "throw-away", books
that you see street vendors sell for $1-2 a book after awhile. Although there are valid and pertinent points in the book, I
found it very troubling to read as you never know what is
verifibly correct and what could be just another mistake or
error ! (Nothing like spending your time learning someone
else's mistakes...) This level of quality is particularly galling considering
that this is supposidly a "second edition". Perhaps it's
no surprise that there is no information on how to reach
the author. If he did then maybe the suckered masses could
have written him email pointing out all the problems, something
the editor should have done but obviously not in this case. Advice: wait for the 3rd or 4th "edition", the "second edition"
should have been called a draft...
Rating:
Summary: SAN and NAS Beginnings
Review: Nicely written material for the beginner to the SAN and NAS areas, but ultimately falls short of the depth that I was looking for in understanding SAN and NAS technologies. Covers the networking, protocols, and basic SAN and NAS architectures well. If you have a fairly good idea of the SAN and NAS solutions available today, than this book doesn't provide anything you haven't already been exposed. If your looking for a book that explains how and where SAN and NAS solutions might fit into your organization, than this is the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Building Storage Networks
Review: The storage industry is colliding with the networking industry. And while the collision is providing lots of opportunity for both industries, it's also leaving much confusion in its wake. For example, What's the difference between SAN and NAS? What is the role of Fibre Channel? How does Ethernet fit into storage networks? I found that Marc Farley's Building Storage Networks provides answers to these questions. The book is written for IT administrators, and covers such additional topics as network I/O, RAID, and network backup. The book is half resource manual and half textbook, meaning that certain topics can be looked up in the index--like a resource manual. At the same time, the book can be read like a textbook, with the reader moving from point to point without becoming completely baffled by jargon. I would say that anyone interested in building and maintaining storage networks should read this book. Mike Downing, Editor, Mass Storage News
Rating:
Summary: Solid and far reaching
Review: This is a great book because apart from the clear describing everything in detail, the authors are really able to cover the entire gamut of available technology. They do not limit their discussion to one approach (say Fibre Channel). The side-by-side of discussion of SAN vs. NAS is very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Modern Storage Architecture
Review: This is the first book I've seen that addresses the topic of modern storage in a manner that allows both the layperson and the skilled professional to understand the issues involved. The key word here is BUILDING, the first word in the book's title. Storage has long been an important topic, but it used to be adequate to depict a storage subsystem as simply a series of boxes attached to a host computer. "Subsystem" is now an antiquated term when it comes to describing modern storage systems. The term "network" is often more apropos, and this book delves into what it takes to create such a network. What is so valuable about this book is that it provides both an overview of various storage topics (disk partitioning, RAID, Storage Area Networks, Network Attached Storage, SCSI, Fibre Channel, caching, etc., etc.) as well as in-depth discussion of the kinds of issues that system architects must address to effectively create a modern storage network. The modern age of storage involves many more complex issues to insure that storage does not become an overall system bottleneck. Mr. Farley's book is an essential guide to allow system architects to effectively create high-bandwidth systems, whether they be for today's internet applications, for intranets, for enterprise systems or for workgroups.
Rating:
Summary: Modern Storage Architecture
Review: This is the first book I've seen that addresses the topic of modern storage in a manner that allows both the layperson and the skilled professional to understand the issues involved. The key word here is BUILDING, the first word in the book's title. Storage has long been an important topic, but it used to be adequate to depict a storage subsystem as simply a series of boxes attached to a host computer. "Subsystem" is now an antiquated term when it comes to describing modern storage systems. The term "network" is often more apropos, and this book delves into what it takes to create such a network. What is so valuable about this book is that it provides both an overview of various storage topics (disk partitioning, RAID, Storage Area Networks, Network Attached Storage, SCSI, Fibre Channel, caching, etc., etc.) as well as in-depth discussion of the kinds of issues that system architects must address to effectively create a modern storage network. The modern age of storage involves many more complex issues to insure that storage does not become an overall system bottleneck. Mr. Farley's book is an essential guide to allow system architects to effectively create high-bandwidth systems, whether they be for today's internet applications, for intranets, for enterprise systems or for workgroups.
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