NAS Storage Solution

A NAS unit is a computer connected to a network that only provides file-based data storage services to other devices on the network. Although it may technically be possible to run other software on a NAS unit, it is not designed to be a general purpose server. For example, NAS units usually do not have a keyboard or display, and are controlled and configured over the network

The key difference between direct attached storage (DAS) and NAS is that DAS is simply an extension to an existing server and is not networked while NAS sits on a network as its own entity; it is easier to share files with NAS.

Availability of data might potentially be increased with NAS if it provides built-in RAID and clustering capabilities.

Performance can be increased by NAS because the file serving is done by the NAS and not done by a server responsible for also doing other processing. The performance of NAS devices, though, depends heavily on the speed of and traffic on the network and on the amount of cache memory on the NAS computers or devices.

NAS is useful for more than just general centralized storage provided to client computers in environments with large amounts of data. NAS can enable simpler and lower cost systems such as load-balancing and fault-tolerant email and web server systems by providing storage services.