There is a lot of discussion about where best to store and how to access database information. This discussion is centered on Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) storage networking technologies. As a leading provider of advanced storage and information management solutions, MTI has prepared this document to help you understand the issues and facts in order to make informed decisions. NAS technology has a place in the IT organization for general file sharing applications, using industry standard protocols such as NFS over traditional networks. NAS is not well suited nor should it be used for database applications. An improvement on the traditional storage model is to use Network Attached Storage (NAS) where physical disk drives are attached to a server, allowing the storage to be made accessible over a network using such protocols as NFS and TCP/IP.