Storage Area Networks vs. Local RAID Arrays?

Noxx asks: "My department is purchasing several new servers for an intranet website project. We are under pressure to store our content on an existing Storage Area Network accessed over a fibre connection rather than on a local RAID-5 array, to cut purchasing costs on the new hardware. Have any Slashdot readers evaluated the pros and cons between the two storage technologies, and are there any points of concern we should address? How does performance compare between the two, and is this a proper use of the SAN? If multiple servers access the same content from the SAN, is the possibility of introducing a single point of failure (ie: the SAN crashes) a valid concern?"