Storage keep on rising and storage prices continue to drop. The result of these two opposing trends is that there’s an astonishing number of affordable network attached storage devices (NAS) on the market. NASes are gaining popularity because users not only want a centralized way to store multimedia and other data, but they also want easy ways to share, stream and remotely access that content.
A popular NAS device
NASes usually fall into 3 categories:
- Consumer
- Consumer/SOHO
- Small to Medium Businesses (SMB)
What is a NAS device?
A network-attached storage (NAS) device is a server that is mainly dedicated to file sharing and these days, for streaming multimedia and other things. You might think that an ordinary external hard drive already does the job but one of the drawbacks for an external drive is sharing it among different computers. If you have a laptop and desktop, you would usually disconnect the drive from one computer and connect it to the other to use the drive. It would be much easier to have a drive that connects to your network, such as through a router, that all computers can use.
This is where NAS devices come in. NAS is an acronym for Network-attached storage. It is a self-contained computer that is connected to a network. A NAS contains its own operating system that handles the functionality of data storage, file systems, and the access to the files. Unlike a regular computer, a NAS doesn’t include a monitor, keyboard or other peripherals.
What to look out for when buying a NAS?
NAS capacity
The main purpose of NAS is to provide centralized, shared storage. There are different types of devices such as single-bay, dual-bay and four-bay. For example, a four-bay NAS device can contain up to 4 hard drives. A dual-bay, 2. You get the idea.
If you plan to store large data files such as music, videos, movies and pictures, you will probably need one or more large hard drive(s). You may think it’s too much for you current needs but remember, it’s always better to have more space than not enough. You could save yourself from buying another NAS device in 3 years time. Think about it.
NASes can be sold with the hard drives included or without them. They often sound like a good deal, until you figure in the cost of the HDDs. NAS devices that ship with the actual disk drives are often a good bargain, and you can be certain you have drives that work with the device. If you’re buying your own drives, make sure you get the right kind. Not all drives work with all NAS devices.
Wired or Wireless NAS?
Most NAS devices out on the market now have wired Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. NAS devices that are accessible wirelessly are still somewhat rare. There are ones that sound great, but they usually have more latency issues than the wired-only devices. You will not take advantage of the Gigabit speed the NAS with a Gigabit Ethernet port wired to a router can offer if you connect wirelessly via 802.11g or 802.11n . Unless you are planning to stream video or perform large file copy uploads and downloads, you might not want to pay the price of added wireless support. It’s better to spend any available money on storage and wired throughput.
Which Operating System?
Is your home or business network strictly Mac-based or Windows? Perhaps it’s a mixture of both, maybe with some Linux clients thrown in. NASes for the home and SMB mainly support Mac and Windows environments. Many of the NAS devices that support Mac file systems also support integration with Apple Time Machine. This gives a well-rounded backup solution for data in Mac-heavy networks.
NAS Backup and Recovery
The data you store is only as good as your last good backup. Higher-end NAS products often have sophisticated management options to configure RAID, or some sort of built-in monitoring system that will alert about impending drive failure and other problems. If your data is mission-critical, these are the kinds of features you may want to opt for.
NAS Noise
Like any other type of server, a NAS drive can be noisy. The noisy ones are the ones that hold hard disk drives, especially when the enclosure supports 4 or more drives. If you are placing the NAS in a server room, that won’t be a problem. In your home or in a small business office that’s another issue altogether. Knowing if the noise level of the devise will be much louder than typical ambient noise could save you a lot of annoyance.
NAS Remote Access
NAS devices are increasingly shipping with remote access capabilities. More vendors are using cloud service for remote access to manage the NAS and access the data on it. Cloud services are also useful for sharing content with friends and family.
NAS Software and Services
Although much of the software that ships with a NAS is focused on managing the device and streaming multimedia there are vendors providing a lot of extras. Some devices have built in Web servers, BitTorrent clients, iTunes server and even offer Telnet. Some can do double duty as a MySQL or FTP server. Many can not only stream multimedia, but can work with IP-based surveillance cameras.
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