Storage Technologies and Their

Foundation
ASSINGMENT 2

Harshit Singh
CCVT B3
50052907
Storage Technologies and Their
Comparisons
Directly Attached Storage(DAS)

Direct-attached storage is a fairly basic, low-maintenance, low-cost solution where the

storage system is a part of the actual host computer or connected directly to the host
computer.
Advantages of DAS Disadvantages of DAS

• Simpler to setup and configure over NAS /

SAN
• Cheaper than NAS / SAN in terms of raw • Dedicated resource to a single computer
storage • No economies of scale in sharing the
• Networks not necessary, doesn’t use IP storage
addresses • Can’t manage DAS via a network
• Faster, more performant and better • Requires a special hardware connection
latency over SAN / NAS
• Easier to deal with overall considering all
things
Network Attached Storage(NAS)

Network-attached storage offers dedicated file serving and sharing through a network. It
increases performance and reliability with features like RAID and swappable drives designed
for higher multi-drive workloads. NAS storage is also a good solution for consolidating storage
systems from DAS – plus, having one centralized, shared storage system, eliminate confusion
and increase reliability in case of system failure or an outage.
Advantages of NAS Disadvantages of NAS

• Economical way to provide large • Requires IP Address(es) and takes up network

storage to many persons or computers space
• Several times easier to setup and • Slower latency and potentially maximum
configure versus SAN data-transfer issues
• Easy way to provide RAID redundancy • Performance can be affected by network
to mass amount of users status
• Allows users permissions, folder privileges,
restricted access to documents, etc
• Higher utilization of storage resources
Storage Area Network(SAN)

A storage area network is a dedicated, high-performance storage system that transfers block-
level data between servers and storage devices. SAN is typically used in data centers,
enterprises or virtual computing environments. It offers the speed of DAS with the sharing,
flexibility and reliability of NAS. SAN storage is a very sophisticated option that’s meant to
support complex, mission-critical applications.
Advantages of SAN
• Economies of scale similar to that of of NAS
• Higher hardware utilization, similar to that of
NAS
• Speed similar or comparable to DAS
• Allows virtual environments, cloud
computing, etc.
Disadvantages of SAN
• Performance affected by other SAN users
• Performance limited by network if configured
incorrectly
• Better performance will still be found using
DAS hardware
• Requires multiple static IP Addresses
• Generally consumes more IP addresses than
NAS devices
• Complex networking planning is necessary
• May want to implement virtual networks /
different subnets
• Physical network wiring may affect
performance
• Physical network wiring should be thoroughly
planned
• Generally more expensive than NAS or DAS
Comparisons

DAS NAS SAN

Less Expensive Can be costly Can be costly

Sharable Sharable Sharable

Not Scalable Scalable in terms of capacity and performance Highly scalable, both from a capacity and
performance perspective

Does not have the performance of SAN and NAS NAS abstracts storage management from the Environment are highly resilient
solutions server

Doesn’t offer advance features like replication Provides features such as thin provisioning and Provides synchronous replication
replication
SAN vs NAS

SAN NAS

Block level data access File Level Data access

Fiber channel is the primary media used with Ethernet is the primary media used with NAS
SAN.

SCSI is the main I/O protocol NFS/CIFS is used as the main I/O protocol in
NAS

SAN storage appears to the computer as its NAS appers as a shared folder to the
own storage computer

It can have excellent speeds and It can sometimes worsen the performance, if
performance when used with fiber channel the network is being used for other things as
media well(which normally is the case)

Used primarily for higher performance block Is used for long distance small read and write
level data storage operations
Can SAN and NAS be used together?

SAN and NAS let you easily add or relocate storage and prevent the storage of nonbusiness
file types.
• SANs are optimized for the high-volume block-oriented data transfers typical of database
and replication servers.
• NAS is optimized for file serving.

Consequently, SAN and NAS are often thought of as mutually exclusive technologies.
However, SAN and NAS actually complement each other and can be combined to solve
common IT storage needs.
What Storage Technology is best for you?

Everyone has different needs and requirements for their virtual environments.
• Choose DAS if cost is an issue, your virtual environment is small and if your environment
doesn’t require advanced features like data replication.
• Choose NAS or SAN if you are building large scale virtual environments. NAS is the better
option if you require the ability to clone large numbers of virtual hosts.
• However, SAN will be a better fit if you require the highest levels of availability and
resiliency.
Case Scenarios
DAS
Best use case scenario DAS is ideal for small businesses that
only need to share data locally, have a
defined, non-growth budget to work
with and have little to no IT support to
maintain a complex system.
Worst use case scenario DAS is not a good choice for businesses
that are growing quickly, need to scale
quickly, need to share across distance
and collaborate or support a lot of
system users and activity at once.
SAN NAS
SAN is best for block-level data NAS is perfect for SMBs and
sharing of mission- critical files or organizations that need a
applications at data centers or minimal-maintenance, reliable
large-scale enterprise and flexible storage system that
organizations. can quickly scale up as needed
to accommodate new users or
growing data.
SAN can be a significant Server-class devices at
investment and is a enterprise organizations that
sophisticated solution that’s need to transfer block-level data
typically reserved for serious supported by a Fibre Channel
large-scale computing needs. A connection may find that NAS
small-to-midsize organization can’t deliver everything that’s
with a limited budget and few IT needed. Maximum data transfer
staff or resources likely wouldn’t issues could be a problem with
need SAN. NAS.