What is a NAS and why do you need one?

Storage needs have evolved considerably over the past decade; Cloud storage services are very affordable these days, and it’s just convenient to upload important documents, photos, and videos to a cloud provider like Google Drive or Microsoft’s OneDrive. This way, you won’t lose any data if you accidentally delete files on your computer or lose your phone.

Although cloud storage clearly has a lot to offer, this route has inherent problems: your data is stored on a remote server controlled by someone else, and although Google and Microsoft state that they do not access not to user data, you do not have access to it. get a lot of privacy.

This is where network attached storage (NAS) comes in handy. At its core, a NAS box is essentially a centralized warehouse of your data that any device on your home network can access; think of it as a storage server that resides in your home. I recently upgraded to a DiskStation DS1823xs+ with over 100TB of storage as my primary home NAS server, and it’s fantastic.

What’s the problem with a NAS and do you really need one? I’m going to go over some of the things I do with my home NAS to better illustrate how a storage server makes a difference in everyday use and why you might want to consider purchasing one.

What can you do with a NAS?

The primary use case for my home NAS is photo storage; All the photos and videos I take on the 100+ phones I test each year are backed up to the NAS, and it happens automatically. When using Synology branded NAS servers, I have set up the Synology Photos app on my phones and it backs up all existing photos and videos on the NAS very well, as well as any new ones I take. All I have to do is use my NAS login details in the app, and it does the rest – it’s this ease of use that makes Synology NAS servers the best in the industry.

My wife has her own user account and she also uploads photos from her phones to the NAS. Having a centralized location to store all photos and videos makes a world of difference, and that data alone is over 15TB. We upload photos to Google Photos in addition to the NAS, but since we don’t need to save there the data in its original resolution, we use the Storage Saver level. Otherwise, we’d be paying $200 a month just to store photos. .

Another use case is computer backup; my wife and I have our own gaming machines and the installation drive for both machines is automatically backed up to the NAS, including all documents. Again, this is done automatically in the background and I don’t have to do anything after the initial setup.

Media streaming is also a huge differentiator with a NAS, and my entire lossless music collection – totaling over 10TB – is on the NAS, and it’s instantly accessible from anywhere. I started using Roon last year, a premium music management service now owned by Samsung and designed to be installed on NAS servers. Roon has made managing my music library incredibly easy, and it has a gorgeous interface and a few extras you don’t get anywhere else.

I also have a lot of media stored on the NAS, and these are fed into Plex, a local streaming solution designed to bring your media collection together. It categorizes TV shows and movies, provides artwork, and is available on almost any device. Having the media collection in one place makes it easy to stream content to any device on my home network.

The best part is that I can access my music and media libraries from anywhere in the world. I use Tailscale to do this, and the service essentially creates a secure tunnel to my home network, giving me the ability to access my data when I travel.

This only scratches the surface of what’s possible with a NAS. Some of the other things I do with my home NAS include setting up a completely offline note-taking service, hosting a website, running a Windows 11 virtual machine (I refuse to install it on my main machine) and recording the feeds from my security cameras.

In short, there’s a lot of potential with a NAS server, and with most pre-built products having the option to install Docker, you can host just about any service you want locally.

Do you need a NAS?

If you don’t want to use cloud storage providers and want a simpler way to store data, a NAS is the ideal option to consider. If you’re just starting out, you can simply repurpose an old computer as a server, and it’s a good way to test what’s possible with centralized data management without purchasing a prebuilt option.

The prerequisites for building a NAS are pretty basic: you need a processor with two or more cores, so any old Intel Core or AMD chip will be more than sufficient. Most pre-built NAS servers use Intel Celeron or AMD Ryzen V hardware, so even if you have an old computer, it should be able to do a pretty decent job. Beyond that, all you need is a hard drive and a way to connect the machine to the router (Ethernet is preferred).

You can even use a Raspberry Pi as a NAS if you want to go the DIY route; all you need is a Pi 4, USB storage drives and custom NAS software like openmediavault. While a DIY solution is considerably more affordable, it doesn’t have quite the same reliability and external storage drives don’t have the same long-term durability as NAS-focused hard drives.

Ideally, you’ll need a pre-built system, as this is designed to operate 24/7 and use as little energy as possible. A pre-built NAS server is basically a box with hard drive slots, and you get between 512MB and 8GB of onboard memory depending on the model, Intel or AMD hardware, and a few USB and Ethernet ports. These cases feature active cooling in the form of a fan to ensure the hard drives don’t overheat, but other than that they’re pretty basic.

What you pay for is the software. This is the biggest appeal of pre-built servers – especially from a brand like Synology – because you get a comprehensive set of features that allow you to take full advantage of centralized storage. Although I prefer to use Synology NAS servers, there are other manufacturers that do a great job in this segment, including TerraMaster and ASUSTOR. It’s just that Synology has the best home NAS servers thanks to a neat interface and excellent mobile apps, so I’m automatically attracted to the brand.

If you don’t want to have a full-fledged server, Synology now offers products like BeeDrive and BeeStation, designed to make backing up photos and documents easier. You don’t get media streaming or other advanced features, but these products are a good place to start if you’re just looking for a reliable way to back up your data locally.

Ultimately, a NAS server is nothing more than a simple way to back up the data you care about, and instead of storing the data on a remote server that you won’t be able to see, it’s stored in a black box next to it. to your router. You can rest easy knowing that all your data is backed up and don’t have to worry about privacy issues.