What is NAS ?

NAS is a kind of storage device in computer science that provides local area network (LAN) nodes with file-based shared storage through a standard Ethernet connection.

Benefits of a Network Attached Storage

While storing data on “The Cloud” these days is a popular option, a NAS which is the acronym for Network Attached Storage does virtually the same thing for no monthly fees.

Unlike having your data stored on someone else’s data server. Knowing your data is safely backed up without a 3rd party snooping through your files, deleting your data or going out of business, is peace of mind only a NAS box can provide.

Owning your own NAS offers so much more control and flexibility over the software that is installed.

NAS boxes offer many additional uses such as a Network Web Server, Email Server, Video Surveillance, File Server, Music/Video Server, or automated Download Station.

It will be available for anything attached to your home or remote network. You can even share selected encrypted content with friends or family anywhere around the world. Think of a NAS as your own personal private cloud.

Top Reasons to Own a NAS

1. Backup up Files and Documents
2. Web Server
3. Music or iTunes Server
4. Automatic Downloads of new Podcasts
5. Surveillance Video System Storage
6. Video/Movie Server
7. Photo Archive
8. File Download Station
9. Personal Cloud
10. Mail/FTP Server
11. Plex Media Server
12. Share Printers
13. Remotely Access Your Files

The NAS box market is quite crowded these days with many different manufactures competing for your hard earned dollars. Synology and QNAP are two companies that have been industry leaders for a while now. They built their industry status by offering a wide array of features and an impressive line of well designed NAS enclosures.

Both QNAP and Synolgy offer models with premium features and hardware at a higher price then typically consumer grade NAS units found in many big box electronic stores.

Their business line of NAS enclosures are often found backing up the data of prominent commercial customers. They have both been at the NAS game for quite a while now and come with many great features.

While both Synology and QNAP offer entry level single drive models, a serious NAS will have a minimum of 2 and up to 8 hard drives or more in a RAID array to provide redundancy and protection for the data they are entrusted to store.

If a drive fails, swapping out a drive is easy. A quality NAS box will format the new drive and begin backing up data on it with minimal user intervention.

For this comparison we will be looking at two higher tier 4-Bay diskless enclosures. The Synology DiskStation DS415+ and the QNAP TS-453 PRO.

Synology SPECS:

• CPU: Atom Quad Core 2.4 GHz
• Memory: 2GB DDR3
• Internal HDD: 4x 3.5″ or 2.5″ SATA2
• Max Internal Capacity: 24TB (4x 6TB HDD)
• External HDD Interface: 2x USB 3.0 Ports, 1x USB 2.0 Port, 1x eSATA Port
• LAN: 1x Gigabit

QNAP SPECS:

• Quad-core Intel Celeron 2.0GHz processor that facilitates high definition media transcoding and the 5.1 channel surround sound with the HD Station via HDMI connection. (Processor’s clock rate can increase from 2.0GHz to 2.41GHz when needed)

• Memory: 2GB/8GB energy-efficient DDR3L RAM (upgradable to 8GB)
• Internal HDD: 4x 3.5″ SATA 6Gb/s
• Max Internal Capacity: 16TB
• LAN: 2x Gigabit ports (expandable to 4 x GbE ports or 2 x GbE + 2 x 10GbE ports)

– See more at: http://mkvxstream.blogspot.com/2014/01/qnap-vs-synology-best-nas-for-2014.html#sthash.ERxj5kWB.dpuf

NAS Hardware & Software

Looking at the specs it would be easy to assume the QNAP is by far the faster and best choice. This would be true if hardware were the only deciding factor.

Software also plays an important role in the equation and this is where Synology has always had an advantage. Their DiskStation Manager Software (DSM) which manages the applications and data that run on their NAS enclosures is second to none.