The Business Case for Storage Networks is part of the Network Business series from Cisco Press. Titles in the series help both IT and business professionals justify their network investments. This book looks into the business implications of storage networks. It is written for anyone involved in network buying decisions, from the hands-on administrators to CFOs and CEOs, who may have no applicable technical expertise. The book explains what storage area networks (SANs) are and what they can do for an organization's network, and helps the reader determine the true business implications for their specific situation. The book is separated into two parts. Part I, "The Storage Networking Value Proposition," covers the problem of direct-attached storage and the solutions offered by storage area networks. Part I also goes into the impact of recent healthcare and financial legislation (HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley) on storage consumption and data retention. Part I continues by detailing two examples of how to value the implementation of SAN and NAS solutions using return-on-investment (ROI) and economic-value-added (EVA) ratios. Finally, Part I discusses the procedures for measuring and tracking the total-cost-of ownership, both before and after the implementation of a storage area network solution. Using real world case studies, Part II details the experiences of IT decision makers and implementers who have initiated storage area network solutions.