Price of Having 2TB in the Public Cloud and in the Private Cloud with NAS

The evolution towards working in the cloud

Without a doubt, storage in the cloud is increasingly in demand. Our way of working has changed a lot in recent years. Until not many years ago, you worked by sharing files with a USB memory. In some offices with small local networks, however, you worked by sharing files in a folder from a PC. On the other hand, in larger companies they had a file server for these purposes.

Currently, the options we have discussed above are used from time to time. However, we are migrating our way of working towards the cloud. In this sense, three types of cloud are currently being chosen:

• The public cloud in which we will have a provider that gives us access to a server, with a certain space in the public cloud.
• A private cloud that is designed to be used only by one business, a NAS server is a private cloud.
• The hybrid cloud that is a combination of the public and private cloud, where both clouds are perfectly synchronized to work together.

This way of working in the cloud offers us one of the easiest alternatives to share files between several people, or to make backup copies of our files practically automatically. The needs of the users are getting bigger and bigger, so we are going to see how much it will cost us to have 2TB in the main storage services in the public cloud, and also how much it would cost us in the private cloud.

Strengths and weaknesses of working in the cloud

In the medium or long term, the current trend is that we are working more and more using the cloud. In addition, the pandemic and the trend towards remote work have also contributed to major changes. Regardless of this, there is no doubt that working in the cloud brings us benefits. One of the advantages of cloud storage is that we can have these files from anywhere , in this case, it would no longer matter if we are at home, on the road, in the office and even if we are using a different computer, since equally we would have access to content hosted in the cloud. Another positive aspect is that it is multiplatform , so we can use it with any device. In this sense, it allows access to these files from any smartphone, tablet or computer with an Internet connection. As we have already commented previously, it allows you to share files and folders with other users , and also, we do not have to worry about the physical device where the data is stored is damaged.

However, having files in the cloud also has its negatives , one of the main ones being the space limit . In that sense, we will have to calculate well what we upload if we do not want to run out of space. Another important thing is related to security , by hosting our files in the cloud we can lose control regarding security, although it is true that there are platforms that protect and encrypt our files well. On the other hand, we are going to need an Internet connection to access the files, and if we work with mobile devices, we still have to spend data from our rate. Finally, there is the problem of server failures, it is not something that happens very often. but during that time we could not work.

Now that we know the main advantages and disadvantages, let’s see how much it can cost us to have 2 TB annually, both in the public cloud and in the private cloud.

Price per year of public cloud storage

Companies that offer payment storage in the cloud such as Dropbox , in addition to being integrated with the main platforms and having powerful applications for computers and mobiles, give us access to uploaded files from anywhere. On our PC it is already normal to have a 1TB hard drive and even more, but Dropbox will allow us to synchronize the files and folders that we want. Currently Dropbox has different prices if we are dealing with a personal or professional license, in the case at hand we have chosen the Dropbox Personal Family version, which incorporates 2TB of cloud storage to share for up to 6 users, the price of this service with charge per year is € 16.99 per month, therefore, after a full year the price is € 203.88 .

Another widely used service is Microsoft 365 Family , this service includes access to the Office suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and storage of 1TB per person, with up to 6 people maximum, therefore, if we have several users we could have more storage in the cloud, reaching up to 6TB of storage. The price of this service is 99 euros per year , although if you only want to buy the subscription for one user, the price is only 69 euros (for 1TB of storage).

In the case of Google with Google Drive , the price of the subscription of 2TB of capacity in the cloud is 100 euros per year , a price that is also very competitive since it is worth half that of Dropbox.

We should not forget either Amazon Drive , in this case the price is € 200 per year , or the popular MEGA storage service that also has very competitive rates, in the case of the 2TB capacity version the annual price is 120 euros. Finally, we must not forget about pCloud , a service that allows us to pay € 350 only once and we will have access to your cloud for life.

Next, you have a summary table of all the prices of these storage services in the public cloud.

Price per year of private cloud storage

When we talk about private cloud, we talk about having a NAS server in our home to access our files and folders from anywhere. Of course, we have the possibility to configure a synchronization of files and folders, as we have in all the other public clouds that we have seen previously. To set up a private cloud, we will only need two things: a NAS server, and the necessary hard drives where we will store all the information.

Since everything is replicated in the public cloud, to avoid data loss, it is very important to buy a NAS server with at least 2 bays to house hard drives. Thanks to the incorporation of 2 bays, we will be able to configure a RAID 1 (mirror) to replicate all the information on the two hard drives. In the event that a disk breaks, all the information will remain accessible, and we can even change the broken hard disk for a new one of equal or greater capacity to replicate all the information.

NAS servers

Although there are dozens of models of NAS servers, we are going to recommend NAS servers oriented to a domestic environment, where we only want to store information and access it locally (in the same home network) and also remotely (through the Internet) . In the event that we want to use it as a DLNA media server, or use a Plex Media Server, you will have to buy more powerful NAS servers than the ones we are going to indicate here.

In this article we have chosen a total of three NAS servers, which incorporate the minimum necessary for their performance when saving files is optimal. All of them are below 200 euros and have 2 bays to house hard drives inside, and to configure a RAID 1.

The QNAP TS-230 model incorporates a Quad-Core 1.4GHz processor, with encryption acceleration and hardware transcoding, has 2GB of DDR4 RAM and a Gigabit Ethernet port to connect it to the local network. It also has 2 USB 3.0 ports. Your QTS operating system has hundreds of configuration options for sharing files via Samba, FTP, WebDAV, and many other protocols.

The Synology DS220J model incorporates a 1.4GHz Quad-Core processor, with encryption acceleration and hardware transcoding, has 512MB of DDR4 RAM and a Gigabit Ethernet port to connect it to the local network. It also has 2 USB 3.0 ports. Your DSM operating system has hundreds of configuration options for sharing files via Samba, FTP, WebDAV, and other protocols.

Finally, the ASUSTOR AS1002T model incorporates a 1.6GHz Dual-Core processor, with a hardware encryption engine, 512MB of DDR4 RAM, and a Gigabit Ethernet port to connect it to the local network. It also has 2 USB 3.0 ports. Thanks to its ADM operating system, we will be able to make the most of your hardware thanks to the incorporation of dozens of network services.

Hard drives

When configuring the hard drives as RAID 1, if we buy two 2TB capacity hard drives, we will have 2TB of real capacity on our NAS, since all the information is replicated on both hard drives. It is advisable to buy hard drives that are specifically designed for NAS servers, as a NAS must always be on. It is advisable to buy two discs that use the same internal technology, and if possible, two equal units of the same brand and model. For example, we could buy two units of the following:

Total price of private cloud

As you have seen, the recommended NAS servers for a home environment are around 200 euros at most, and each of the two disks is worth approximately 80 euros. The total cost does not end here, we must also feed it, although these NAS are low consumption and we will have a consumption of around 15W at most, therefore, 15W x 24h x 365 days would be 131,400W, which is 131KW, or whatever. the same, about 10 euros of electricity cost. Therefore, we will have a cost of about € 370 with a single payment , so in the medium and long term it will be much cheaper, because the cost of electricity would be only € 10 per year, in addition, all files are are under our control.

Depending on what service in the public cloud we compare it with, the private cloud will be amortizing it from 2 years (Dropbox or Amazon Drive) to 4 years (Google Drive). We hope this public and private cloud guide will help you decide which one to choose.