Any storage consolidation effort must involve a serious consideration of disk subsystems and the specific disk types that those systems will contain. As an example, there may be hundreds (even thousands) of file servers distributed across the organization. A proliferation of individual servers can be difficult for storage administrators to utilize and maintain, often leading to wasted space. A storage consolidation initiative might move to replace those disparate servers with a single large network attached storage (NAS), which is easier to maintain and manage as a centralized storage resource.

NAS is so easy to install and manage that NAS sprawl is a common problem. This is why NAS is often a prime candidate for consolidation initiatives. Learn how to purchase NAS appliances with an eye toward NAS storage consolidation.