SQL Server SAN Snapshots
SQL Server can be fantastic, but when the databases get to be really large it can become very difficult to fit in a backup window.
Inevitably people start to investigate SAN based snapshots. Almost all storage vendors have the capability to talk directly with SQL Server to quiesce the DB long enough to take the snapshot, but this in itself can cause issues due to the software limitations.
The pros and cons of SAN based snapshots are discussed in this excellent article over at searchsqlserver.
Tags: SQL Server