It's often a matter of block vs. file. To support block transfers,
run
Fibre Channel (FC),
FICON, FCIP,
iSCSI. For file transfers, use
NAS with
CIFS or
NFS. Block transfers offer low latency and
high performance; mainly for applications that require block
transfers. For example, some applications can run on NAS but may
perform better under different workloads. Common examples
include databases and Microsoft Exchange. There are caveats, and
you can run applications in different modes if you follow the
vendor's recommendations. Some Microsoft applications can run on
NAS as long as it's a Microsoft-based file system. This puts
many NAS vendors at a disadvantage unless they're running a
Microsoft file system. Ultimately, run NAS when you need to
share data. If you need to share your storage over the network,
that's an ideal application for NAS. This is also true if we
need to share a file.
Listen to the
SAN FAQ audiocast here.
Go back to the beginning of the
Storage Area Network FAQ Guide.