FC SAN Performance Scalability Availability Management
Cross-platform support
Most common usage
Cost
Storage Access
Can be limited by LAN bandwidth
Capacity scaling might require multiple NAS servers
Built-in RAID, redundant network ports, snapshots
Ease of individual appliance management
Built-in heterogeneous platform support
Client/server file storage File Sharing
Lower start-up costs, low management costs
File I/O
Storage does not compete with LAN traffic
Servers and storage can scale independently
Synchronous disaster- tolerant configurations
Requires specialized skill set
Heterogeneous platform support is not yet mature
Database applications
Higher start-up costs; management costs vary
Block I/O
Comparing the features of NAS and SAN: Both NAS and SAN can offer increased performance over DAS, but the performance of NAS can be limited by LAN bandwidth constraints. Both NAS and SAN are far more scalable than DAS. SANs allow servers and storage to scale independently, while NAS devices incorporate a thin server.
Both NAS and SAN provide greater reliability than DAS, but SANs can provide the highest levels of availability by enabling server clustering and disaster-tolerant configurations without sacrificing performance. Both NAS and SAN can dramatically reduce storage management costs, but NAS is generally easier to install and manage each appliance individually.