NAS Protocols
NAS Vendors now support a variety of
File I/O Protocols – Most commonly deployed are NFS & CIFS
• NFS (Network File System Protocol)
– Developed by SUN in 1984
• CIFS (Common Internet File System Protocol)
– Derived from SMB in 1980s
• Internet (HTTP, FTP)
• NCP (Netware Communication Protocol)
• AFP (AppleTalk Filing Protocol)
• DAFS (Direct Access File System)
NAS vendors support a variety of file I/O protocols including NFS, CIFS,
HTTP, FTP, NCP, AFP, and DAFS. The two most commonly implemented file
I/O protocols are Network File System (NFS) and Common Internet File
System (CIFS):
NFS was developed by Sun in 1984 as a way to cross-mount file
systems between Sun workstations. It was widely adopted as a
networking standard and integrated into most Unix servers and clients.
NFS provides access to shared file systems through an interface called
the Virtual File System (VFS) that runs on top of TCP/IP.
CIFS was developed by IBM & Microsoft in the 1980’s and is still used in
Windows servers today. Derived from SMB (Server Message Block)