For high-speed network storage solutions, what system should one focus their research on?

Focusing research on SAN, or Storage Area Network, is essential for high-speed network storage solutions because SANs are specifically designed to provide fast, reliable, and scalable storage architecture suitable for large amounts of data being accessed by multiple servers.

A SAN allows for the separation of storage resources from the main network, providing dedicated bandwidth that significantly enhances performance. This is particularly beneficial in environments requiring high transaction speeds and low latency, such as in enterprise databases, virtualization environments, and data-intensive applications.

While block access refers to a method of storing data in blocks, and is indeed what SANs utilize, it does not encompass the broader infrastructure or the advantages provided by a dedicated SAN environment. Zoning, on the other hand, pertains to establishing access controls within a SAN to enhance security and management but does not address the overall storage solution itself. VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) is a file system specifically for VMware environments, which is also not a storage solution but rather a component of managing virtual machines.

Hence, when it comes to high-speed network storage solutions, SAN stands out as the comprehensive system that offers the necessary high performance, scalability, and availability for demanding storage tasks.