Oct
22
2009

Understanding the difference between Local Storage, NAS, SAN and Backups

Part of what makes making decisions on web and application hosting a tricky proposition for businesses is the sheer number of options to be considered. This is not only a factor for complex considerations like load balancing and content management solutions; it can make even straightforward items like data storage needlessly complicated. Understanding the purpose and roles of various data storage options can not only help you make better decisions, but it can guide your IT strategy and lead to better solutions for end users and customers. So what are the differences between local storage, NAS/SAN services, and data backups?

When we talk about local storage, we’re referring to disk drives that are physically attached to a computer or server. At minimum, this will contain the operating system and other software needed for the server to perform its desired functions. For companies just beginning to build a web presence, their local storage drives might also contain their web site files, databases, images, and other information, but as the website and applications grow this will cause scalability issues. When this occurs, the solution is to offload data storage from the server. The two technologies that are most common in the industry are NAS (Network Attached Storage) and SAN (Storage Area Networks), approaches that seem similar but server very different purposes.
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