If you’re storage solutions or a home server to house all your family’s files in one central location, you may have heard the terms NAS and SAN.

As technology evolves, the difference between the two storage solutions for homes, entrepreneurs and small businesses is beginning to blur. But understanding the basics of NAS and SAN operation can help you make the best decision for your home or business.

What Is a SAN?

A Storage Area Network is typically connected to the network via fiber over Ethernet or some other form of cabling. A SAN makes storage devices, such as RAID arrays, accessible to servers.  A SAN is often used in storage virtualization solutions.

Because of its complexity, a SAN is most frequently used in small-to-mid-size business environments.

What Is a NAS?

NAS, or Network Attached Storage, is a storage device attached to your home or business network via IP (Internet Protocol.) To achieve large storage capacities, NAS devices often make use of RAID array technology. A NAS server may look like a typical USB hard drive, but the technology is more complex and a NAS device can hold more data. Because of their affordability, NAS is becoming commonplace to store media like movies and music in homes or to provide shared storage options for families with multiple computers.

While NAS is typically more stable than many other forms of storage media, it may be difficult to recover data from your NAS device in the event of NAS failure. That’s where expert data recovery services can help.

We are experts in data recovery for RAID arrays and NAS devices in the home or business. Whether you’re facing the loss of mission critical corporate data or a college freshman’s first term paper, we can help.