Network attached storage (NAS) devices are wonderful things. Back in the day, I used to run Windows Server on my network, and it did a good job. Then things got more complicated with Active Directory, which was fine for a large corporate but added a lot of complexity to the SME marketplace. Microsoft, in its ongoing attempt to force every square peg into a round hole, made a Home Server. But complexity was always going to be an issue.
NAS devices have been around for a while, of course, and many vendors had a go. Starting with straight storage, they grew into application platform servers with a rich array of additional tools and services. It started with the obvious ones – file server, a spot of DNS and maybe some DHCP services. But now it has blossomed into a rich ecosystem.
Because of that, it makes sense to choose a vendor platform and to stick with it. There are tools, such as NAS-to-NAS replication and backup services, that really need two devices of the same platform, even if they’re not the same model. A decade ago, I looked at NAS devices from Synology, Asustor and Qnap, and chose Synology. There are now seven Synology NAS devices on the main network, spread geographically across the various buildings, and a couple more on other networks, too.
I take a six-year view on these devices. Although the latest drive lifetime research suggests that there isn’t much of an issue at the six-year mark, I think the whole operational device starts to get leggy at that point. With a NAS, it’s best to replace before you have a problem rather than after one has occurred. Of course, drives will be in appropriate RAID
