One must remember that performance is a series of leaps and bounds. Once upon a time we could most certainly say that local disk was faster than network attached storage as our heavily laden 10Mb shared networks tried to keep up. Then most of us started to move into the 100Mb switch or even FDDI. This level of performance as compared with SCSI-1 or 2 was fairly comparable. Now that we have SCSI-3, Ultra and Ultra Wide bus speeds, well 100Mb does not seem to hold up anymore. We have not installed our Gig. network yet so I cannot talk of its performance first hand. This is one the biggest reasons we, as customers, have such a hard time getting numbers that mean anything from vendors.
We have several Oracle databases on NetApp filers but they are all currently small, under 40GB. We used filers so that both Sun and NT workstations may access the data. We were running a direct attach but decided that since the controller and the filer were on the same switch the direct attach did not buy us anything.
When you buy a filer, you are buying the features not just performance. Quite often, but not always, you make a compromise of one for the other. It is each IT professionals job to make the decision about what is right for your environment.
By the way, the vikings were on the continent around 1000 A.D. They made the trek from Iceland to Newfoundland in search of food and supplies. Recent research suggest that the Norse established the site 1000 years ago, making them the first Europeans to visit North America.
-- Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. -J. Lennon