When it comes to having a home office, a small business, or even a home media server, one can find some excellent networking solutions. Of course, this doesn’t mean that in the world of business or even home offices, that you should give up your company’s external backup solution. Still, it can provide a little bit of “home-based” backup storage of your own so you can have optimum network speeds when it comes to transferring files. But how do you get back up storage? What kind of storage are you wanting? And what are you using it for?
These are all things you’ll want to consider when choosing what’s called a Network Attached Storage solution. In this guide, we’ll give you some of the best that we’ve found and insight into how you can benefit from this.
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What is NAS?
NAS is Network Attached Storage that backs up your files in case a disaster happens.
We know NAS sounds kind of like a new energy drink. But it’s not. Think of it as a data server that is ten times better, more secure, faster, and viable than, say, an external hard drive (or a bunch of them, as some people have a problem with). Have you ever wanted to back up your entire computer? Well, this is one way to do it safely. This is a great option to keep all of your documents safe, from photos to videos, movies, music, and related files. If you ever need to access the data, you can log onto your NAS server and download them to your local device.
Why Do You Need One?
A Plex Media Server might be an excellent option if you’re looking to beef up your storage capacity and your home’s network.
This is a big question you’ll want to ask yourself. If you want to create a home media server network, you’ll probably want a pre-built option. These can be useful in a home office environment as well. Still, many are designed to offer the ability to stream things like videos, such as the famous Western Digital My Cloud (which features four bays and a custom OS that can help you back up your data and critical files, as well as having Plex Media server integrated into it for media streaming across your home’s devices). For a reliable office solution or maximum security, though, you’ll want to consider a more customized approach.
Size Matters
A 20 TB NAS will give most small businesses more than enough storage space to house their backups.
The main thing is that you need to consider the storage space you’re going to need. If you want 20 TB, you need to figure out if your NAS system can handle large drives or maximum capacity. At the same time, you’ll want to look at how many drive bays it has as well. Most of the time, you also need to consider that whatever server you’re going to use will probably be “diskless,” meaning that you’ll have to buy your hard drives.
Fortunately, you can easily buy a Synology 4-Bay NAS Diskstation for less than three hundred bucks, and a 4TB Seagate Ironwolf NAS Hard Drive can be put inside of it for less than a hundred dollars apiece (get 4 for 20TB of hard drive space!).
The Downsides to Using NAS?
You may need to install a NAS OS to set it all up, but that’s pretty easy if you do your research. There are even great solutions available like FreeNAS, which can make everything more manageable and give you accurate logging. You can also do just like other cloud servers and have numerous plugins installed, such as torrents, Plex Media Server, QBittorrent, and even home security camera tools if you want to install your NAS for that purpose.
Do I Need a Custom Installer?
Creating and sticking to a backup strategy can save your business if and when things go awry. Talk to your MSP to learn about the ins and outs of storage and a solid backup plan.
If you’re not well versed in how a backup file system works, you’ll want to have a quality service team provide installation. These are perfect for things like VoIP phone systems and more, and you may want to have a real expert like Infinity Solutions to get everything in place for you. However, for more secure options in the Phoenix area, looking into a local external cloud service may be the better option if you’re a large corporation or even a small business.
This means having your network solutions specialist set you up with a high-quality backup file system on your own dedicated hosted cloud server. Storage options can be discussed and bandwidth options so that you can get the most out of your service possible!