NAS systems can be attached directly to the LAN or can be an element within a storage area network. Businesses can see significant cost savings by establishing a single, centrally managed storage center rather than using multiple separate storage centers. Businesses accomplish this by linking separate storage in remote locations and bridging them using a leased line or Internet connection. Further, by increasing the efficiency of tape and drive space allocation, SANs can decrease spending on storage devices. And since increased server capacity is not required with each addition of a storage device, the cost of storage further diminishes.
SANs give users a way to inexpensively scale their data storage capacity.
As additional storage devices are required, users can purchase storage equipment independent of servers, since a single server can control multiple storage devices. This will lower total cost of ownership for storage equipment. LAN-free backup is simply backup over the Fibre Channel network rather than using LAN to provide bandwidth for the backup. The data is sent through a backup server and into the tape library for backup. All of these backup methods allow users to extend the bandwidth available on the LAN, ensure an improved backup scenario and make for highest data availability in a storage environment.