- Both network-attached storage and direct-attached storage hold data in a file structure. This differs from a third storage option, storage-attached network (SAN), which stores data at the data-block level. Neither DAS nor NAS are directly accessible. They do not have keyboards or monitors. They are designed to be instructed by other computers.
- The performance of both NAS and DAS is affected by the devices to which they are attached. If the network to which the NAS is connected is heavily congested, access will be slow. If the server to which the DAS is connected has a lot of calls on it, access to the DAS will be slow. Apart from their method of access, NAS and DAS are the same concept and follow the same physical design.
- Both DAS and NAS systems are used for high-volume data-access scenarios such as heavily accessed web servers. They can also be used for data backup. NAS is better suited as a shared resource, serving multiple servers, however, many servers can be attached to the same DAS device depending on the number of ports the DAS has.