The paths between the nodes and the back-end storage devices. It provides fault tolerance and redundancy. Storage area network (SANs) are made up of several storage systems connected together to form a single backup network. A SAN is a networked infrastructure that allows several systems to be connected to any storage device. This is usually provided by using switches to create a switching fabric. The switching fabric allows for several devices to communicate with back-end storage devices and provides redundancy and fault tolerance by not depending upon one specific line or connection.