A storage area network (SAN) is primarily connected to users through which type of protocol?

A storage area network (SAN) is primarily connected to users through Fibre Channel. This protocol is specifically designed for high-speed data transfer and is optimized for storage networking environments. Fibre Channel supports high throughput and low latency, making it highly suitable for applications that require fast access to large volumes of data, such as databases and enterprise applications.

Unlike TCP/IP, which is more general-purpose and is used to provide connectivity over broader networks, Fibre Channel focuses exclusively on connecting storage devices and hosts in a SAN architecture. This specialized nature allows Fibre Channel to achieve higher performance levels in storage communications compared to typical transport protocols like HTTP, which is designed for web traffic, and FTP, which is intended for file transfers. Therefore, the attributes of Fibre Channel make it the correct protocol for connecting users within a SAN setup.