What is a NAS and do I need one?

A NAS or Network Attached Storage is a device that allows you to store data away from your device. For example, backing up your computer/laptop or storing your photos from your phone.

Many new NAS devices also allow you to run applications for home automation, or media storage. Some even allow you to run your own website from home.

They come in various sizes, some come with no storage and you need to add your own hard drives, but in the main, they do come with drives already installed. You will need to configure the drives though. The main thing to consider when purchasing a NAS is if you want your storage to have redundancy or speed, whilst the vary latest devices come with SSD or NVME cache devices, the trade off between the different RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) standards mean that the tradeoff is minimal now. Essentially you have Mirror or Stripe, So if you buy a 2 bay NAS, install 2 x 4 TB drives you can have 1 x 4TB storage solution with a mirror (so if one drive fails, you still have a copy of your data) or 1 x 8TB (actual storage will be less due to overheads) storage solution (where both drives are combined to provide a single storage solution with no redundancy).

If you buy a NAS with more than 2 Bays, you are then getting into the realms of RAID 5, Raid 10 etc (see here for raid explanations) These offer more than just increased storage and redundancy, depending on the raid level you choose, the data transfer can be significantly increased. However, you will still be restricted by your network speed. If you have a 1gb (giga bit) Network at home, then you can expect transfer speeds of around 100MB (Mega Bytes per Second), maybe lower depending on your hardware. WiFi will be lower due to encryption and other devices on the same WiFi.

Many of the NAS devices now come with applications that you can install on your mobile device, or PC that will allow you to “SYNC” to NAS, even when you are not in the home. This type of technology is called a personal cloud. This would result in lower costs for cloud data services such as Google Drive, One Drive, or iCloud. You can store all your photos on your NAS automatically.

They can also be used as download stations, downloading content from the internet instead of having your PC on. Media Stations, connect it to your TV and play media files from the NAS. Allowing you to back up your DVD collection and store them on the NAS.

A NAS is not just a USB drive, multiple users can use it at the same time. You can have remote access to the files (useful for homework!!)

So should you get one?

Well that is entirely upto you, however there are many benefits of having a NAS at home, your data is stored securely and privately so reducing the chance of losing important data. They can be used to store files from your PC so you don’t have to have them all stored on the PC harddrive taking up space, and in the result of malware or hardware failure, they are backed up.

For an idea of what is available – click here