Your storage system will connect to users across some sort of network or networks. You may have existing IT networks into which your storage system will be integrated, and indeed networking is such a major investment, that many organisation will only put in a single type of network. This approach might be characterised as NAS(Network Attached Storage)(g) . Sometimes though a dedicated network will be installed to manage the large objects and large volumes that a storage system needs to handle. This could be called a SAN(Storage Area Network)(g)

NAS based storage must always be able to operate within the constraints of the network. The challenges raised by obsolescence in this area are based around how to manage the upgrading of storage whilst avoiding placing excessive strain on your network. It would be possible to install and configure very high performance storage equipment and yet not get the expected performance from it simply because the network lacked the capacity to take advantage of the upgrade.

A Storage Area Network does not entirely avoid such concerns- eventually your users will make demands to move content across the main network- but performance of the storage devices themselves can be maximised on a smaller, faster dedicated network. Such a network will need to be fundamentally compatible with the main network though. Often the dedicated network may be decided upon because of other business critical functions that are attached to it; broadcast out put for example. In those cases the pressure to upgrade may come from obsolescence in an area other than the archive, and investment may be required in order to maintain network compatibility without actually increasing performance.