(
ATA
Over
Ethernet) A protocol for transferring data from an ATA (IDE) storage drive directly over a local network. Developed by Coraid Inc., AoE transfers data at Layer 2 and not IP Layer 3 (see
OSI model). AoE allows a storage area network (SAN) to be economically constructed within a LAN subnet. Originally targeted for Linux servers, the first implementation of AoE was Coraid's EtherDrive in 2004. AoE also became part of the Linux kernel as of version 2.6.11.
A NAS with Unlimited Storage
A network attached storage (NAS) device can be built as an AoE initiator, residing between the network and the AoE disks. As a "NAS head," it enables file sharing (NFS, CIFS) to the clients in the network but with a potentially unlimited number of drives for storage. See
IDE,
SAN,
NAS,
NFS,
CIFS and
HyperSCSI.