SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices to the operating system
A SAN does not provide file abstraction, only block-level operations. However, file systems built on top of SANs do provide file-level access, and are known as SAN filesystems or shared disk file systems
NAS - Network-attached storage (NAS)
NAS in contrast to SAN, uses file-based protocols such as NFS or SMB/CIFS where it is clear that the storage is remote, and computers request a portion of an abstract file rather than a disk block.
SAN-NAS hybrid
Despite the differences between SAN and NAS, it is possible to create solutions that include both technologies, as shown in the diagram
SAN infrastructure
SANs often utilize a Fibre Channel fabric topology - an infrastructure specially designed to handle storage communications. It provides faster and more reliable access than higher-level protocols used in NAS.
A typical Fibre Channel SAN fabric is made up of a number of Fibre Channel switches
A typical Fibre Channel SAN fabric is made up of a number of Fibre Channel switches
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