thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Commonly confused · Systems & Data Center

SAN vs NAS vs DAS: What's the Difference?

DAS connects storage directly to one server. NAS is a file server appliance that shares files over the regular network using file protocols. A SAN is a dedicated high-speed network that presents block-level storage to servers so they see it as local disks.

Storage Area Network (SAN)

Full definition
vs

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Full definition
vs

Direct Attached Storage (DAS)

Full definition
Storage Area NetworkNetwork Attached StorageDirect Attached Storage
Access levelBlockFileBlock
ProtocolsFibre Channel, iSCSI, FCoE, NVMe-oFSMB/CIFS, NFSSATA, SAS, USB, NVMe
NetworkDedicated storage networkStandard Ethernet LANNone; direct cable
SharingMultiple servers, often clusteredMany clientsSingle host
Cost and complexityHighestModerateLowest
Typical useDatabases, virtualization clustersDepartmental file shares, home mediaSingle-server storage expansion
Remember it

NAS shares files, SAN shares disks, DAS shares nothing.

Exam tip

The block versus file distinction is the main test point: SAN is block, NAS is file. Protocol matching (iSCSI and Fibre Channel for SAN, SMB and NFS for NAS) is also common.

Tested on

More Systems & Data Center look-alikes