nas

After almost two months in a beta state, Synology's version 4.2 of its DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system is now live.

The new version offers a host of improvements for both home and business users, especially in terms of ease of use. For example, Quick Connect -- a feature that quickly configures the router to facilitate the NAS server's Internet-based applications -- now supports the setup of more apps, including Cloud Station, DS File, DS Audio, DS Photo+, and the new DS Cloud app.

DS Cloud adds a Dropbox-like sync service for mobile devices. Other improvements … Read more

If you haven't heard of Seagate's BlackArmor NAS servers, including the 220 and the 440 models, you didn't miss much or you have missed everything. Almost four years since first introduced, they are now obsolete.

Seagate announced today the replacements, a totally new line of network attached storage servers for small businesses or professional consumers, called Business Storage NAS. The new servers promise to offer a lot more, with faster speeds, better cloud integration, and a host of features.

The storage vendor says the new servers offer powerful backup solutions for Windows, Mac (with native support for … Read more

LAS VEGAS--LaCie showed off today at CES 2013 its latest high-end network attached storage (NAS) server, the 5big NAS Pro, which is a major upgrade to the company's previous 5big Network 2.

Powered by a dual-core 2.13GHz Intel 64-bit Atom processor and 4GB RAM, the 5big NAS Pro is a five-bay server that offers a massive amount of storage space (up to 20GB), and promises data rates up to 200MBps via its two Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The most prominent feature of the 5big NAS Pro, however, is its totally new novice-friendly SimplyRAID mode and cloud features

A new … Read more

LaCie's 5big NAS Pro is a major upgrade to the company's previous 5big Network 2. The new server is now significantly faster while retaining the excellent physical design of its predecessor.

The 5big NAS Pro does have some shortcomings, however, including a spartan feature list and the lack of customization options. The sever also doesn't provide a way to quickly set up its hard drives into a RAID configuration.

All things considered, at the current price of some $500 (disk-less version, or $1,100 and $2,000 for 10TB and 20TB, respectively) it's an excellent choice … Read more

It's been an exciting -- and busy -- year for networking and storage, two very important categories in consumer electronics. Important because they are at the core of information technology -- without either, most or all of your gadgets will come to a grinding halt. And as far as I know, we haven't yet seen the limit of what they can do.

That said, here is a quick roundup of the current state of this sector and what we can expect, based on my educated guesses, heading into CES 2013.

802.11ac This year will be remembered … Read more

Following its recent announcement of the availability of a new 4TB hard drive, Western Digital today announced that its RAID-capable NAS server, the My Book Live Duo, now offers up to 8TB of storage space.

The My Book Live Duo is the dual-bay version of the single-volume My Book Live and originally had a storage cap of 6TB.

The server houses two user-serviceable 3.5-inch hard drives and supports both RAID 1 and RAID 0 configurations. The top 8TB capacity is available only in the RAID 0 setup, which is fast but provides no redundancy. If you want data safety, … Read more

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series, for the other parts, check out the related stories. This post was updated on March 29, 2013, to add more information on backing up.

One of a storage device's most important roles, if not the most important, is to keep the information stored on it safe, especially from hardware failure. Redundancy and backup are the two popular types of data protection. They are not the same, however, and it's important to understand the differences between the two.

In a nutshell, redundancy in consumer-grade digital storage means using … Read more

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Now that you have some ideas about internal storage vs. memory after reading Part 1, here in Part 2 I'll talk about the two main types of external storage devices: direct-attached storage (DAS) and network-attached storage (NAS).

DAS and NAS share a few things in common. They both use one or more internal drives (hard drives or SSDs) on the inside, and they utilize the same methods to combine drives' storage space (when multiple drives are used). But before we … Read more

Information runs the computing world, and handling it is crucial. So it's important that you select the best storage device to not only keep your data, but also distribute it. In this guide, I'll explain the basics of storage and list the features that you should consider when shopping. But if you're ready to leave for the store right now, here are my top picks.

Hard-core users hoping to get the most out of a home storage solution should consider a network-attached storage (NAS) server from Synology, such as the DS1511+, DS412+, or the DS213air. Both offer … Read more