Surely you have more than one hard drive at home, and in recent years games, photos, movies and any type of files have been growing in size by leaps and bounds. And the fact is that the photos have more and more megapixels and the videos more resolution, so probably more than one of your hard drives has become too small, and you already have a curious collection. Would you like to have everything more organized, accessible and upgradeable? Well, let me explain the wonders of a NAS .
What is a NAS
Its acronym stands for Network Connected Storage , that is, it is a storage unit that can be accessed by network, or in other words, a hard drive with a network cable. The advantages that this system proposes are quite striking, and if we add to that a simple interface and the possibility of installing third-party applications and services, we obtain a completely automated system capable of managing our data and offering us endless solutions. The main advantages of a NAS are the following:
- Future scalability
- Backup system
- Simultaneous access of several users at the same time
By working as an independent team, these devices have their own operating system that allows managing access to it, as well as installing applications and utilities that will expand the functions, as we will see later.
RAID or multiple disk configuration
The NAS always present configurations of several disks, and it is that from the beginning we will be able to combine the units to mount a RAID system with which to optimize performance or find the best backup solution. Synology has an interactive calculator on its official website with which to propose different proposals depending on the capacities and number of hard drives that we are going to use in our configuration. It’s important to remember that a SHR (Synology Hybrid Raid) setup allows additional hard drives to be attached over time, so you won’t have to fill in all the bays from the start.
The number of disks that we can connect to a NAS will depend on the number of bays it has available. The bays are these removable trays that allow you to connect and disconnect the drives very easily, thus allowing them to be updated or repaired in a matter of seconds.
Synology Models
Once the subject of RAID systems has been clarified, it is time to choose the NAS that best suits your needs. For this, Synology has an extensive catalog in which you can select from a large number of versions, depending on the number of bays you need and the installation format.
In our case we are testing the DS720 + , a magnificent two-bay unit that has a powerful quad-core processor and the possibility of using two SSD units for internal system cache. It also incorporates two ethernet ports for added links with which to distribute data traffic more efficiently and obtain better network performance, as well as the possibility of expanding the RAM memory.
An easy-to-use interface
Something that is especially convenient and useful on Synology models is their DSM operating system. With this interface, the user can configure the NAS system from a browser, being able to organize all their personal files, folders and much more. With an administrator account, we can create new users who will access the NAS with the credentials that we indicate, being able to apply storage quotas or permissions to folders and applications. The NAS works so independently that we will also be able to program on and off times in the event that we do not want it to work 24 hours a day, something that many will not prefer not to activate in order to access their data at all times. and from anywhere in the world.
A computer that goes for everything
But a NAS is much more than shared and backed-up storage. The power and performance that they are capable of offering allow us to mount multimedia servers where we can store content in 4K with HDR, or host our own website so that it is accessible worldwide. Are you fond of photography? Catalog all your photos on your own personal server without fear of depending on paid services and fear for your privacy. With the Synology Photos application you can create your own digital album and allow access to family and friends, also being able to create collaborative albums with which to gather photos from all over the world.
The possibilities with a NAS are endless, so if you were thinking of acquiring one, from here we can only tell you good things about these network storage systems.
