Flexibility and scalability are limited. Enabled by new and emerging technologies, these storage-centric infrastructures go beyond online hard disk systems and offline storage archives to include special storage servers, new storage networks and the management software to make it all appear as a seamless whole to enterprise applications. Both technologies liberate storage devices from their servers and make data generally available to a variety of users across multiple operating systems. Both NAS and SAN are expected to gain a wide following. But here the similarities end.
Gateways can extend availability to mainframe systems.
Storage area networks are separate, centrally managed, high-speed storage networks consisting of multivendor storage systems, storage management software and network hardware. SANs can be configured to provide hundreds of servers in many locations with direct access to hundreds of terabytes of shared storage resources. In fact, many companies consider NAS a first-step toward an eventual SAN deployment. Other companies are looking to move ahead quickly with SAN technology to achieve early and sustainable competitive advantage by leveraging their information resources. Although the implications of falling behind not keeping pace with technology can be devastating to a business's ability to compete, the impact of a major architecture change can be huge and potentially disruptive.