What is the difference between NAS and SAN?

What is the difference between NAS and SAN?

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The fundamental difference is NAS does file I/O by remote file serving, while SAN is for block I/O where storage is connected via a network (usually fibre channel, but with recent deployments of iSCSI, over IP on Ethernet) just like the storage that was directly connected. Both are very applicable in consolidation solutions where storage is being consolidated for use by multiple servers and applications. So, remember, file I/O versus block I/O.

This was first published in October 2005

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