DAS, NAS, SAN? You know what they are, but how about a guide to knowing what's what? This Fast Reference gives the key points to each storage technology--including the pros and cons.
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Type of Storage
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Pros
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Cons
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General use
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Direct-attached storage (DAS)
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- Simple
- Low starting cost
- Easy to use
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- Needs separate storage for each server
- Not easy to transfer data in network
- Server takes application processing load
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- Data and application sharing
- Data backup
- Archiving
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Disk library
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- Fast
- High storage capacity
- High data availability
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- Not as easily accessible as DAS
- Intended for write once, read rarely info
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- Disk-to-disk backup
- Archiving
- Near line storage
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Magnetic tape
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- Low cost per megabite
- Portable
- Unlimited capacity (with multiple tapes)
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- Inconvienient for fast recovery of individual or group files
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- Archiving
- Limited-budget businesses
- Offsite storage
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Network-attached storage (NAS)
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- Fast file access for multiple clients
- Ease of data sharing
- High storage capacity
- Redundancy
- Ease of drive mirroring
- Consolidated resources
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- Less convienient than SAN for moving large blocks of data
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- Backup
- Archiving
- Redundant storage
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Redundant array of independent disks (RAID)
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- Fast
- High storage capacity
- High data availability
- Reliable
- Security
- Fault tolerance
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- Possible false sense of security
- Some recovery difficulty on some systems
- High cost for optimum systems
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- Swap files
- Internet service providers
- Redundant storage
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Storage area network (SAN)
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- Excellent for moving large blocks of data
- Exceptional reliability
- Easily availible
- Fault tolerance
- Scalability
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- Expensive
- Lack of standardization
- Management complexity
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- Large databases
- Bandwith-intensive applications
- Mission-critical applications
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