What is Network Storage

What is Network Storage?

       A Network Attached Storage (NAS) device is a storage device connected to anetwork that allows storage and retrieval of data from a centralised location for authorised network users and heterogeneous clients.  It may be beneficial to think of NAS as a standalone hard drive that is wirelessly connected to all the computers in the business. This network of users can then store and access files on the NAS so that anyone can retrieve them. For businesses this makes data management so much simpler especially when a team is working on a joint project. Documents and other digital media no longer need to be emailed around the office but can be easily placed on the NAS for sharing.

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Caption: : This is how network storage works

How to use Network Storage

NAS stands for “Network-Attached Storage.” Basically, it’s a way to attach a hard drive to your network and make it accessible to all your devices for centralized file-sharing and backups.You could also use your NAS to make your files available to you over the internet, using it as a remote file server you can access from anywhere.The most obvious — though not necessarily best — way to get a NAS is just to buy a pre-made, ready-to-use NAS device. Head to a website like Amazon and perform a search for NAS, and you’ll find a bunch of devices marketed as a home file or media servers. Essentially, these devices have built-in hard drives and some basic server software that can connect to your Wi-Fi or wired network and provide a NAS file server. They’re all-in-one solutions so you can just grab a box, plug it in, and start using it.

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Caption: : This is how it works :)

What is Network attached storage

Network Attached Storage (NAS) allows multiple users to store and share files in a centralised location rather than individuals storing files on their own computers. By using Network Attached Storage documents, reports, music and videos can be shared with anyone who has access to the network making NAS an ideal business storage solution. NAS Solutions In today's digital world all businesses, both small and large, need a system for everyone in the company to easily access files, create back-ups and share devices such as printers. Which is why NAS (Network Attached Storage) may be the solution your business has been looking for.What Is Network Attached Storage? It may be beneficial to think of NAS as a standalone hard drive that is wirelessly connected to all the computers in the business. This network of users can then store and access files on the NAS so that anyone can retrieve them. For businesses this makes data management so much simpler especially when a team is working on a joint project. Documents and other digital media no longer need to be emailed around the office but can be easily placed on the NAS for sharing. A huge plus point in favour of Network Attached Storage is that it is possible to set up remote access. Forgotten that report you needed to work on at home? No problem. Just remotely log into NAS and retrieve the file.

Desktop Or Rack?NAS can be configured as either a desktop or rack mounted system. For small businesses or where space is an issue a desktop solution would be advisable. However enterprise users may be wise to invest in a rack mounted system.Whichever system you decide to install for your business you can find everything you need on Ebuyer.com from manufacturers such as Synology QNAP , and Buffalo.Storage & ProtectionYou can store a huge amount of data on NAS, and Ebuyer.com has a wide range of capacities to fit every requirement. Furthermore you will need to protect your data, so RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a key feature allowing data to be written across multiple drives to ensure data is not lost should a drive fail.

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Desktop or Rack!

Bad situation and how to solve it

Problem #1 - One Drive is NEVER good enough A Hard Disc is found in almost all common/standard computers, laptops and servers. It's a mechanical device that stores your data - it spins at pretty high speeds (typically 5400 or 7200 rpm - yes, per minute). It gets warm, is vulnerable to shock, vibration and doesn't like power cuts too much either. These are the single biggest cause of computer failures - mostly because it's one of the few moving parts that just naturally carries more risk (there are some other reasons, but let's just stick to this for now).The result of this is that drives FAIL. Regularly. A week hasn't gone by yet where we don't get a few reports from customers of drives failing, and we're no strangers to it ourselves as across our server infrastructure, we have a lot of spinning drives, so see the odd one die from time to time.If your NAS only has one Hard disc in it, you're already asking for trouble. One drive means a single failure will absolutely take out your NAS - no more data. You'll be wanting your backups. 

Problem#2

Problem #2 - RAID or NO RAID (or RAID 0 = also known as "Zero RAID!) Let's assume your NAS has more than one drive in it. You might have been told or seen advertising on your NAS saying that it supports "RAID". But what does this mean?RAID stands for "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks" - it's a general term used for the group of technologies and concepts behind using more than one drive in a team. RAID comes in many shapes and sizes. Some NAS drives - for example most NetGear ReadyNAS units have some specific and special types of RAID software that don't fit into the standard definitions. Those definitions (for the most common types, are):RAID 0This isn't "redundant" at all - but it is an array of disks. The clue though is in the number. "Zero RAID" - pretty much sums it up. It's a quick way to get the capacity of 2 drives put together as if it is one big drive, and a good number of NAS drives and/or people configuring them do this. The downside is that this means 50% of every file is on each drive - so if one drive fails, every file is effectively torn in half - making it useless. This is why RAID-0 is not a good plan - yet most NAS drives use this by default (we've even seen some desktop computers come with 2 drives like this - madness indeed).RAID 1This is the most common type of *actual* RAID we see in NAS drives - but sadly we don't see it too often. RAID-1 is effectively 2 drives with identical mirror copies - everything on one drive is on the other. This is good if a drive fails - losing one drive means everything carries on while you replace the faulty drive. It can also give you better performance in some situations - although most NAS drives are very slow so you won't benefit. The downsides are that you're wasting 50% of the space you have in theory because you're just storing it all twice.The real danger here though is that too many people believe having RAID-1 means you have a backup of your data. They're wrong. You have precisely no backup - you just have 2 copies. And this means if you delete a file - it's deleted on both copies. If a file gets corrupted, it's corrupted on both copies - RAID-1 is effectively in "real time" - so errors are copied too. If the NAS RAID system has an issue it will corrupt both copies - this thus is a terrible false belief and leads many people to lose data. Don't do it.