Editing Computer data storage (section)

=== Network connectivity ===
A secondary or tertiary storage may connect to a computer utilizing [[computer network]]s. This concept does not pertain to the primary storage, which is shared between multiple processors to a lesser degree.

* [[Direct-attached storage]] (DAS) is a traditional mass storage, that does not use any network. This is still a most popular approach. This [[retronym]] was coined recently, together with NAS and SAN.
* [[Network-attached storage]] (NAS) is mass storage attached to a computer which another computer can access at file level over a [[local area network]], a private [[wide area network]], or in the case of [[online file storage]], over the [[Internet]]. NAS is commonly associated with the [[Network File System|NFS]] and [[CIFS/SMB]] protocols.
* [[Storage area network]] (SAN) is a specialized network, that provides other computers with storage capacity. The crucial difference between NAS and SAN, is that NAS presents and manages file systems to client computers, while SAN provides access at block-addressing (raw) level, leaving it to attaching systems to manage data or file systems within the provided capacity. SAN is commonly associated with [[Fibre Channel]] networks.