Storage Area Network (SAN) and Network-Attached Storage (NAS) are way different from one another. They present different concepts and approaches for storage mechanisms.
Following are the key differences:
| Feature | SAN | NAS |
|---|---|---|
| Access Level | Block-level | File-level |
| Protocols | Fibre Channel, iSCSI | SMB/CIFS, NFS, HTTP |
| Connectivity | Dedicated network (high-speed) | Ethernet/LAN-based |
| Performance | High performance, low latency | Moderate, dependent on LAN |
| Complexity | More complex | Easier to manage |
| Cost | High | Relatively lower |