> In response to a post on data purging Tim Gorman wrote "some on SAN-based
> disk, some on NAS-based storage".
>
> Can someone please explain the differences between these technologies
> please.
>
> My understanding that a SAN is a group of disks which are available on a
> network and are not 'owned' by a server and have no direct cables into a
> server.
> I also understood NAS to be network based disk (duh!)
Please correct, clarify, or comment as needed; I don't recall ever having
seen a formal definition for either acronym:
* SAN (storage area network): storage-arrays connected by dedicated
high-speed interconnects (i.e. SCSI, SSA, FC-AL, etc) managed by a dedicated
server, including switches and routers to provide storage for one or
multiple storage clients (i.e. what we tend to call "servers")...
* NAS (network-attached storage): storage that is hosted by (i.e.
mounted on) a dedicated, special-purpose server and made available to
network clients via IP protocols like NFS, Samba, etc across general-purpose
IP networks. For NAS, think "dedicated NFS server" or "dedicated file
server" or the like and you've got the idea...
There are so many technologies mixed into SANs that I find it difficult to
generalize. It is probably more appropriate to define NAS first and then
say "SANs are everything else" in networked storage, but I thought I'd try
it the hard way...
Further generalizing:
* SANs are capable of faster and more sustainable I/O throughput rates,
but more complex and more expensive
* NAS are economical, easy to administer, and easy to implement, but
provide lower sustained I/O throughput rates
For this reason, I don't see the question as an "either-or" proposition
(i.e. either all SAN or all NAS). They are each point-solutions along a
continuum, as illustrated in the "strategy" in my previous reply. Data
passes through a life-cycle, just like anything else. Requirements for
storage and retrieval can change during that life-cycle...
-----
... "continuum" ...... there's a high-class word I've been itching to use
..... has the potential to become as hoity-toity and annoying as "paradigm"
and "juxtaposition", though... :-)
>
> Thanks
>
>
> John
>
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