Storage Area Network (SAN)

A Storage Area Network (SAN) is a network of storage disks. In large enterprises, a SAN connects multiple servers to a centralized pool of disk storage. Compared to managing hundreds of servers, each with their own disks, SANs improve system administration. By treating all the company's storage as a single resource, disk maintenance and routine backups are easier to schedule and control. In some SANs, the disks themselves can copy data to other disks for backup without any processing overhead at the host computers. See also NAS.

A network that transfers data between computer systems and storage devices via peripheral channels such as SCSI or Fibre Channel.