There are several reasons for IT departments to adopt SANs: 

• Need: The amount of information that needs to be stored will reach 7-mil terabytes in 2006, up from 800,000 in 2002. The demand to store more data will outpace the capacity of server-based storage. All size companies face the challenge of storing and accessing data without impinging upon server performance.
• Cost: Centralized SANs can be more cost efficient than heterogeneous server storage. All storage applications over SANs can be easily monitored from a single workstation.
• Consolidation: Data-intensive applications drive re-centralizing storage. Consolidating storage improves the backup/restore process, where multiple platforms can store and retrieve over multiple SANs. SAN fibre channel technology is ideal for the many-to-many environments pervasive in all size businesses today.
• Seamless backup: Data moves seamlessly across the SAN to backup media without disrupting server input/output, thus reducing server load and increasing server efficiency for processing and communication.
• Expansion: Since storage configurations can be changed easily and regularly, additional storage can be added without further degrading server performance. Additional storage can be quickly added. Storage capacity is virtually unlimited.

The traditional LAN/WAN approach to storage will be incapable of handling the increasing demand to store more data. Further, storage equipment and management issues are costly. As the volume of information grows, IT departments will likely adopt a strategy which separates spending decisions on servers and storage, thus making decisions on server-independent storage purchases more flexible and creating opportunities for SAN solutions.