Network Storage

Network storage is any type of computer storage that involves accessing information over a computer network. Network storage arguably allows to centralize the information management in an organization, and to reduce the duplication of information. Network storage includes:

Network-attached storage is secondary or tertiary storage attached to a computer which another computer can access at file level over a local-area network, a private wide-area network, or in the case of online file storage, over the Internet.

Storage area network provides other computers with storage capacity over a network, the crucial difference between network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area Networks (SAN) is the former presents and manages file systems to client computers, whilst a SAN provides access to disks at block addressing level, leaving it to attaching systems to manage data or file systems within the provided capacity.

Network computers are computers that do not contain internal secondary storage devices. Instead, documents and other data are stored on a network-attached storage.

Other proposed methods

Phase-change memory uses different mechanical phases of phase change material to store information, and reads the information by observing the varying electric resistance of the material. Phase-change memory would be non-volatile, random access read/write storage, and might be used for primary, secondary and off-line storage.

Holographic storage stores information optically inside crystals or photopolymers. Holographic storage can utilize the whole volume of the storage medium, unlike optical disc storage which is limited to a small number of surface layers. Holographic storage would be non-volatile, sequential access, and either write once or read/write storage. It might be used for secondary and off-line storage.

Molecular memory stores information in polymers that can store electric charge. Molecular memory might be especially suited for primary storage.