San Nas

By Author: Ted Starsky
Total Articles: 11
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Although storage area network and network attached storage are perceived as separate technologies, for some years IT providers have been launching solutions that offer both SAN and NAS functionality.

A typical SAN NAS device is a NAS appliance which also provides services available for SAN networks where you can store the data created by various file systems. Therefore, SAN NAS solution provides file level as well as block level access to the storage resources in the network.

In older models the NAS data had been placed outside the SAN structure. Now, the files and blocks are perceived as unified resources thanks to a software for data storage virtualisation. SAN NAS device allows to store the data created by various file systems: Microsoft Common Internet File System, Unix, Linux Network File System, NetWare Core Protocol (Novell), HTTP and AppleTalk.

A combination of SAN NAS functionality within one network infrastructure ...
... allows to make the best of the advantages of each network solution. For example, it is known that in

NAS environment, where the data is transferred between the initiator (a server) and the target (mass storage device) via Gigabit Ethernet network, the transfer runs faster than SAN in the case when the files are relatively small. On the other hand, SAN overrides NAS when the files are larger and the input/output operations are carried out sequentially, for example when a backup of large amount of data is being made.

SAN NAS is a network type which centralises all storage resources under one management unit for blocks and files. All heterogeneous devices make a pool of data resources and you can make virtual volumes for hosts which will be able to use them. This centralization enables easy migration and better management in compliance with one data storage policy.