Definitions for "Network Attached Storage"
Keywords:  nas, livevault, cifs, storage, nfs
In general, NAS is storage in a form that is readily accessible on a network, as opposed to direct-attached storage. Traditionally this meant having a storage array device that incorporated a file system and presented either a networked file system protocol such as NFS or CIFS, or else emulated a disk device so that the array could be connected to a storage I/O interconnect to the host.
This is a device that contains a number of disk units attached to a dedicated server. The NAS device appears as a server on the network. It is possible to communicate with it using standard file sharing protocols, therefore no specialised hardware is required. See Storage Area Network (SAN).
A specialized file server that connects to a network. LiveVault Online Backup Service uses a NAS device for restoring large amounts of data in your network. It is a stand-alone unit that plugs into an Ethernet port and includes the file sharing protocols necessary to have the device recognized as a share on the network. A Snap Server is a type of NAS device. See also CD-ROM, media, Snap Server.