SAN vs. NAS
In this article you would find out:
- what is NAS
- NAS Limitations
- what is SAN
- SAN Pros and Cons
- NAS vs SAN Comparison
- Difference Between SAN and NAS
Are you read? Let's read!
What is NAS?
A NAS is a network-attached storage device that connects to your home network, provides file storage services, and makes your data accessible from all devices. NAS devices are great for both home and office use. They provide an easy way to access data (to exchange information, work on different projects) for multiple users in different locations.
Using multiple disks allows you to reliably protect yourself from data loss in the event of a HDD failure, and you will have access to your files at any time of the day. In addition, this storage option does not cost a lot of money and, if necessary, you can easily increase free space.
Easy to install and deploy NAS make this device very attractive for all users. It looks like this:
All NAS volumes appear to the user as connected to the network, and files are stored on one or more hard drives in the system, most often at one of the RAID array levels. The more drive bays your NAS has, the more storage options you have.In this case, the device itself is a network node, and the NAS uses an Ethernet network to send and receive files.
The only negative phenomenon that you may encounter is that with a large influx of requests, the server may not be able to cope with this and performance will be reduced for a while. Therefore, if the server is not overloaded, there will be no problems at all, and if you use thin software to transfer information, then the NAS will have even more advantages.
NAS Limitations
With NAS, you may have questions about scaling and performance. As mentioned above, the server may not have time to respond to requests from a large number of users. Of course, you can expand the storage, however, in reality, you will most likely need to use a more powerful system with a larger embedded processor with faster and larger network connections.
In addition, Ethernet itself transfers data from one place to another, dividing the source into several segments (packets). Depending on network traffic, any of these packets may be delayed / sent out of order and the file will not be available until all packets have been delivered to their destination.
This only becomes a significant problem in complex environments where there are huge files and latency of more than a few milliseconds can disrupt production.
In other cases, such delays do not really matter and may not be noticed at all.
What is SAN?
SAN is all about providing users with high-performance storage sharing with minimal latency. It consists of a combination of servers and storage over high-speed, low-latency interconnection. Here, there is a direct Fiber Channel connection from the client to the storage volume to provide the highest performance. Direct Fiber Channel connectivity avoids TCP / IP bundling issues and latency, LAN congestion - delivering the fastest access speeds available for media and mission-critical data storage.
SAN provides shared storage for users in demanding applications. For even greater performance, the SAN can request a separate private Ethernet network between the server and clients. This is to keep file request traffic out of the Fiber Channel network.
SAN Pros and Cons
The main disadvantages of SAN are its complexity and cost. This requires both a separate Ethernet network for metadata file requests and a Fiber Channel network to be provisioned and maintained. It is not only difficult from the point of view of implementation, but also from the monetary side. However, this is the only way to provide high-speed data access for a large number of users, which can instantly scale to support hundreds of users simultaneously.
NAS vs SAN Comparison
For a better understanding of the differences between NAS and SAN, let's start comparing them.
- The NAS is intended for home use or small and medium-sized businesses.
- SAN is designed for professional and corporate environments.
- NAS is inexpensive, easy to manage, and SAN is expensive and requires additional administration.
- NAS speed depends on the TCP / IP Ethernet LAN and the number of other users accessing the storage at the same time. SAN provides consistent high speed using Fiber Channel, and Fiber Channel can be delivered over high speed Ethernet using protocols such as FCoE and iSCSI.
- NAS supports SMB / CIFS, SFTP, NFS, and WebDAV, while SAN supports Fiber Channel, FCoE, and iSCSI.
- For NAS, high-performance NAS scalability to petabytes is possible using clusters or scale-out nodes. SANs have the ability to add additional storage controllers, allowing SAN administrators to scale performance and storage capacity.
Based on the aforementioned significant differences between NAS vs SAN, we can conclude that NAS is easy to set up, easy to administer, and great for common general purpose applications. And SANs are best used for mission-critical and high-performance applications, so configuration and administration will be much more difficult here.
Based on the presented table, we can conclude that NAS is easy to configure, to administer, and is great for common general-purpose applications. And SANs are best used for mission-critical and high-performance applications, so configuration and administration is much more difficult.
Differences Between NAS and SAN
| NAS | SAN |
| Typically used in homes and small to medium sized businesses. | Typically used in professional and enterprise environments. |
| Less expensive | More expensive |
| Easier to manage | Requires more administration |
| Data accessed as if it were a network-attached drive (files) | Servers access data as if it were a local hard drive (blocks) |
| Speed dependent on local TCP/IP usually Ethernet network, typically 100 megabits to one gigabit per second. Generally slower throughput and higher latency due to slower file system layer. | High speed using Fibre Channel, 2 gigabits to 128 gigabits per second. Some SANs use iSCSI as a less expensive but slower alternative to Fibre Channel. |
| I/O protocols: NFS, SMB/CIFS, HTTP | SCSI, iSCSI, FCoE |
| Lower-end not highly scalable; high-end NAS scale to petabytes using clusters or scale-out nodes | Network architecture enables admins to scale both performance and capacity as needed |
| Does not work with virtualization | Works with virtualization |
| Requires no architectural changes | Requires architectural changes |
| Entry level systems often have a single point of failure, e.g. power supply | Fault tolerant network with redundant functionality |
| Susceptible to network bottlenecks | Not affected by network traffic bottlenecks. Simultaneous access to cache, benefiting applications such as video editing. |
| File backups and snapshots economical and schedulable. | Block backups and mirrors require more storage. |
Should You Choose a NAS or a SAN?
The distinction between storage area network and network attached storage is obvious: SAN is a network of devices that behave as one, whereas NAS is an endpoint device. Buying and maintaining a network area storage device is more easier and less expensive. A storage area network takes expertise, skill, and ongoing maintenance to set up. Building one is also expensive.
You should use a NAS if you require storage for backup or data exchange among small groups. Hire a professional to create you a SAN if you demand high input/output speeds and have servers and apps that must connect with one another.