A NAS, or Network-Attached Storage, is a technology used to create a storage device that s can connect to on the same LAN, or Local Area Network, to access the dedicated storage. This technology has been around since the 1990s, and now with storage devices being cheaper than ever, NAS setups are becoming more useful even for the average . In addition, with software solutions for creating a NAS becoming more available and accessible as well, people will be able to take more control of their data.
Some s face an issue while using a computer: the ever-present storage problem where they run out of space on their desktop or laptop. In many cases, a could simply buy a new hard drive or SSD and install it on their desktop to increase storage or buy an external drive for a laptop. However, many computer cases are removing dedicated hard drive bays, which makes adding higher amounts of storage more complex and tedious. With external SSD or hard drives, well, that can be inconvenient since they are bulky and external, potentially taking up precious desk space for the .
This is where a NAS shines. Suppose a needs a ton of external storage or wants an easier way of sharing data amongst family on the same network.In that case, a NAS is the solution. Once a NAS is set up, the can easily access the device over LAN by connecting to the NAS itself, essentially making the NAS a dedicated external storage drive, but without the hassle of needing to plug anything into the computer and also the benefit of adding more storage over time quickly. Any other on the same LAN can also connect to the NAS as long as they have permission to do so, which can be configured within the NAS software.
RAID Configurations And NAS Customization
Using a NAS for backing up data is a great use case as well. Within the NAS software, TrueNAS, which is free and open-source, a can set up the NAS drives in various RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configurations to help counteract data corruption or storage drive failures. The main benefit is that with different levels of RAID, the drives are redundant to different degrees, which means that if one drive fails, has data corruption, or any other drive issue, the data is stored on the other drives and won't be lost. For example, a mirrored RAID layout with two 1TB SSDs would only allow for 1TB of storage capacity instead of 2TB, but the data on the NAS would be stored equally on each SSD. This gives the highest amount of redundancy and makes the stored data more resilient to drive failure or data corruption.
The of course has as much customization as they want for their NAS. For example, a could choose not to use a RAID layout at all and utilize the full storage capacity of their drives. This is not recommended, however, since a significant benefit of a NAS is data redundancy. However, there are compromises for storage capacity and redundancy with different RAID configurations, which give the higher storage capacity, but sacrifice the redundancy level of mirrored setups without losing all redundancy. Overall, a NAS is the best solution if someone has random storage drives lying around or needs a good way of sharing data on a local network. With free software such as TrueNAS, creating a NAS is simple and completely free to set up and can even be used to turn an old computer into a new storage device. Since a NAS doesn't need a good graphics card or even a super powerful computer, a NAS give s ways to turn their old hardware into something useful again.
Source: Seagate