When we require more storage than our computer or laptop can provide, most of us do this at home. A USB cable is typically used to connect a hard drive or SSD to your computer’s USB port. Thunderbolt cables and ports are available for Mac users. There are ways to provide people access to the hard drive, but the hard drive is normally used alone by the computer to which it is connected. Direct-attached storage is a term used to describe this type of storage (DAS).

We’re talking about your local network at work or at home, which could be a hard-wired Ethernet or a WiFi enabled network. As previously stated, network-attached storage, or NAS, devices are storage devices that are connected to networks. NAS devices are normally configured for access via permissions to users on an internal network, though you can usually set up internet access to your NAS devices if you want to. While cloud storage in a Wide Area Network (WAN) might be argued to be the third method of connecting computers and information, as discussed below, for the purposes of this study, we’ll stick to a local network.

Azure, Amazon Web Services, cloud, and many other types of network-attached storage exist, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll stick to a local network. When it comes to keeping expenses set or predictable, having access to data and files during internet outages, or being worried about privacy and data security, most individuals choose to connect storage to their own networks.