What is NAS Appliance? - Definition from WhatIs.com

Definition

NAS Appliance

A NAS appliance is a type of commodity hardware that includes its own dedicated storage disks and RAID that can easily scale as more capacity is needed. NAS appliances help businesses protect corporate data, enable file-sharing among employees and remote connectivity.

A NAS (network-attached storage) appliance typically uses protocols such as the one associated with the Network File System NFS to operate as a file server, releasing other servers from that responsibility. Other NAS appliance benefits include faster data access, easier administration and simplified configuration. Each appliance has its own dedicated storage disks and RAID.

NAS appliances also have some drawbacks. For example, because they are file-based, they are not appropriate for every application. Furthermore, a proliferation of NAS appliances can result in bottlenecks.

Related glossary terms: Network File System (NFS), unified storage (network unified storage or NUS), network-attached storage (NAS), NAS accelerator, direct-attached storage (DAS)

Contributor(s): Sonia R. Lelii

This was last updated in December 2011

Editorial Director: Margaret Rouse

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