A NAS is an excellent one-
stop solution for any type of
user. An individual can house
their media collection, family
photos and data backups on
a NAS, whilst using a cloud
app to host photos and music
to other family members.
A business user can use
multiple NAS units to backup,
provide cloud server access
and virtualisation to the
workforce, and all from
an inexpensive and easily
manageable box.
We’ve already looked at the
benefits of virtualisation for
home and business users. If
finding a virtual desktop hosting solution isn’t working for you,
then a NAS drive may be a good alternative. Some NAS drive
manufacturers have implemented a virtualisation app that
can be downloaded and installed to the NAS; and when set
up correctly will serve the user base with a variety of virtual
desktop images.
VIRTUALISATIONNaturally, using a NAS as a cloud
server is a great solution. You can
utilise the huge capacities of the
installed hard drives, up to 10TB, whilst offering the users an
easy to connect and use cloud solution. Most of the NAS drives
also offer a simple management setup, allowing even non-
technical users the chance to get up and running with their
own cloud within a matter of minutes; and often without the
security hassle of opening up a hole in the router. CLOUD SERVINGNAS drives aren’t useful for simply sharing
your media. With the right setup, all your
desktop computers, regardless of whether
you’re an individual or a business, can be backed up to a NAS.
You can even store multiple backups across days, weeks or
months if you have enough storage available.
BACKUPSDual bay, or more, NAS drives offer
the user a set of RAID (Redundant
Array of Independent Disks) options
with the installed drives. A RAID setup simply offers different
kinds of configurations, or levels. Each of these levels can
implement a different type of redundancy. For example, RAID
1 offers data mirroring, so any data written to one drive is
mirrored by the second. This way, should one drive fail, you can
replace it and rebuild the data from the other one. Depending
on the RAID level, you either lose some or use all of the drive(s)
capacity installed. Two 10TB disks at RAID 1 will only allow you
to use 10TB, as the other drive is being used as the mirror. REDUNDANCYBusinesses who want ultra-scalability can opt for enterprise level NAS solutions, with 24 drive bays possible.Mostly though, an SMB will be more than satisfied with just as powerful NAS
drives, offering more than ample capacity.Using a NAS Drive as a Cloud Server