Buying a NAS

Seven Reasons Why

Although NAS devices have been for sale for over 20 years, they have remained a niche business commodity. As a commodity initially used by businesses to maintain storage and protection of data, it is only recently that the value of a NAS in the home has been recognized. Explaining it as an external hard drive that is connected through the Ethernet port makes it much easier to understand and can be customized with as much storage as needed.

ASUSTOR NAS devices support a wide range of storage sizes. With up to eighteen Terabytes per hard drive available for sale right now, a four bay NAS can utilize up to 72 TB in a single volume. A variety of factors need to be considered when selecting a capacity. Higher capacities cost more money, so it is up to the user to decide what is needed. If multiple people are using the NAS, higher amounts of storage are likely to be required. Furthermore, photographers, audio editors or video content creators will also need to consider purchasing higher capacities.

ASUSTOR NAS devices feature two or more bays. Each bay can accept one hard drive. Drives can be combined to create a large storage volume as well as create redundancy. Redundancy, in the form of RAID adds a layer of data protection against drive failure. Two drives in a RAID one configuration provides protection against one of the drives failing as both drives have identical data and half of the total potential capacity. For NAS devices featuring more than two bays, RAID 5 provides the same level of protection of one drive failure. In this case, the data has parity information spread across all drives and total capacity is one drive less than total drives installed. Any single drive may fail before data is lost. Drives can be replaced easily and without shutting down the NAS if a NAS has hot-swappable bays. Once an offending drive is replaced, the operating system will automatically rebuild the array to a healthy state.

Storage and backup are the basic core functions of a NAS, however a variety of ASUSTOR NAS devices support apps for a custom experience. The ability to expand both software and hardware is a feature of an ASUSTOR NAS that adds value for the customer at no extra cost. Expanding hardware is easy. USB external storage devices, HDMI displays, printers, DACs are supported with an ASUSTOR NAS that interact with your NAS apps in a variety of ways to create a truly custom experience.

ASUSTOR NAS apps are often a focus of attention. With more than two hundred apps, almost anyone’s needs can be met to expand the applications on the NAS. Choose from a variety of app types that include, but are not limited to, multimedia, monitoring software, streaming, website hosting, cloud data synchronization and remote data access. Both software and hardware are evaluated simultaneously when selecting the right NAS.

Unlike public cloud services, managing your NAS is done by you, ensuring you have complete control over your data. ASUSTOR NAS devices come with the advantage of personal privacy and security. Since many lifestyles cannot be separated from the internet and identity thefts are increasingly common, a NAS provides both ease of access and data security. In terms of data security, ASUSTOR provides an in-depth data protection plan from the inside out, using multi-level security to achieve protection against loss or theft. Two-step verification, firewalls, regional IP blacklists and whitelists, antivirus software, folder encryption and HTTPS connections all ensure that ASUSTOR NAS devices remain secure with your data.

After selecting a NAS, after-sales service is important in maintaining a great experience. Detailed user manuals and regular firmware updates bring a fresh and more secure experience. There are multiple ways to provide after sales support, including the aforementioned firmware updates and detailed user manuals, but also to provide excellent technical support. ASUSTOR’s technical support center provides guidance and service with a smile helping customers retain an overall excellent experience. Software maintenance features inside the NAS ensure that NAS hardware and hard drives are kept optimal to prevent data loss.