THE LABS IN ONE NUMBER 56
While a NAS is a brilliant addition to any household or small business, it’s vital you pick the right one. We test 12 leading contenders
Running out of disk space? No problem. Several of the dozen NAS drives we test this month can store up to 56TB, which should keep you going for a while.
Has the once mighty NAS become a niche product? Not as much as you might think. True, cloud storage has become cheaper and faster. Arguably, music and movie streaming services make the whole idea of a media server seem old-fashioned. However, there’s still much to be said for having huge amounts of centralised storage on a local network.
For a small business, a NAS can provide backup and file-sharing capabilities without the slow transfer speeds and latency of cloud. It can secure all the crucial, irreplaceable data in your home, and stream music, photos and video to nearly every device found within it.
Most of all, NAS makes sense from a cost perspective. Storing terabytes of data in the cloud soon gets expensive and whether you’re an enthusiast, creative or small business owner, you could be looking at hundreds of pounds per year. With a NAS device, you make an upfront investment, but as long as the hardware keeps on rolling, there’s nothing else to pay other than electricity.
And there’s more to network attached storage than the name suggests. Most NAS appliances are now really stripped-back servers, capable of running content management systems, video surveillance streams, chat and email services and even Office suites.
A NAS working as a media server won’t just store and stream media, but transcode it for different devices on the fly, or even double up as a media player in your living room. Some now provide cloud-like sync and storage services, while others can run virtual machines or moonlight as a simple Linux PC. A new NAS might be niche, but it’s a smart investment. We’ve picked 12 of the best for you to choose from.