NAS Devices

Types of NAS

NAS devices can come in a wide range of sizes and shapes, each suited to a different application. Whether you’re a small home business or multinational conglomerate, there is a NAS solution perfect for you. All these devices share advantages, including centralised large file storage, being easy to maintain at optimum temperatures, and quieter operation. Here are some of the different types and how gamers, streamers, and content creators may utilise them.

• Consumer-grade NAS devices are suitable for gamer and streamer home networks. These are perfect for storing personal files, photos, video captures, and more. Usually, they have a small enclosure, which may contain between two to four drives and up to 100TB of storage. They can easily be stored out of the way, such as under a desk or in a corner of your gaming room. A NAS employed at this scale offers functionality, file sharing, data backups, and media streaming.
• Larger NAS solutions are useful for groups of people, such as esports teams or even content houses. These can contain dozens of drives, providing hundreds of terabytes of storage to all users. A NAS of this type will generally be kept in a dedicated server room, on a rack alongside the rest of the network infrastructure. At this scale, a NAS will usually feature RAID redundancy, data encryption, and the ability to limit data access to users.
• Large multinational enterprises will host multiple servers across a range of their locations. Each server contains several server-grade blade NAS devices that, when combined, offer multiple petabytes of storage. Each NAS is stored in a dedicated server rack in a climate-controlled room, protecting the server from outside factors that may affect performance. A NAS at this scale will offer features such as global file systems, data deduplication, and file compression for easier transfers.