Network attached storage (NAS) allows workstation users and application servers to share files, even when the workstations and servers run under different operating systems. However, it can be difficult or impossible to scale a single NAS unit in storage capacity or performance.

This white paper discusses how business decision-makers can overcome concerns with current approaches to NAS. It specifically discusses how the lack of scalability of individual NAS devices counteracts the devices' major value proposition -- ease of management -- due to a phenomenon known as NAS creep, a potential solution to NAS scalability, fault tolerance and manageability limitations called NAS aggregation, and an approach to NAS aggregation using file switch architecture. (May 2002)