What’s the difference: NAS vs SAN

S.N SAN NAS

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1. SAN stands for Storage Area NAS stands for Network Attached

Network. Storage.
2. In SAN (Storage Area Network), In NAS (Network Attached Storage), data

data is identified by disk block. is identified by file name as well as byte

offset.
3. In SAN (Storage Area Network), file In NAS (Network Attached Storage), file

system is managed by servers. system is managed by Head unit.

4. SAN (Storage Area Network) is NAS (Network Attached Storage) is less

more costly. expensive than SAN.

5. SAN(Storage Area Network) is NAS (Network Attached Storage) is less

more complex than NAS. complex than SAN.

6. Protocols used in SAN are: SCSI, Protocols used in NAS are: File

SATA etc. server,CIFS etc..

7. For backups and recovery in SAN, For backups and recovery in NAS, Files

Block by block copying technique is are used.

used.
8. SAN gives high performance in While NAS is not suitable for that

high speed traffic systems. environment which has high speed traffic.
9. SAN needs more time and efforts in NAS is easy to manage and provides a

organizing and controlling. simple interface for organizing and

controlling.
10. SAN needs TCP/IP networks and NAS not depends on the LAN and uses
 depends on the LAN. high speed fiber channel network.

Pic for NAS:

Pics for SAN