Desktop NAS

If you're looking after a large enterprise, you may have ignored the "Desktop NAS" category of storage devices, but this would be a mistake as they can be very useful.

A small, relatively inexpensive Desktop NAS box can provide Terabytes of fault tolerant storage at prices that until recently would have seemed ridiculous.

Nearly all low cost NAS devices are based on embedded Linux systems and as such compatibility with Windows-based networks is a potential problem. However, an open source implementation of CIFS, i.e. the Windows network protocol, is generally used to allow inter-working with Windows, Mac and other Linux systems. Most also provide other access protocols such as FTP or NFS.

You might also be surprised to learn that the higher end desktop NAS devices can also take part in domain security to some extent. Usually this takes the form of importing users and groups and then assigning access rights.

Moving beyond security, most also offer some form of backup facility or expansion via USB or eSata connections. However, managing this backup can be a problem unless it is left to local administration. Other management tasks include swapping failed drives, rebuilding the system and checking the devices’ integrity.

You might think that hot swap drives are a must for a RAID system but in many cases desktop NAS is used in a situation where access to storage isn’t critical and it may even be better to power down to effect a repair.

While they are clearly not the single solution to the enterprise storage problem, if you need to add some local or specialised storage for a small group of users then the two devices we examine this week in the first part of our Server Management Storage Labs are both worth considering.

Western Digital ShareSpace: This NAS desktop device can provide a large amount of reliable storage at short notice and at a surprisingly low price.

LaCie 5big Network NAS: The LaCie 5big Network is a very smart looking NAS that could be given pride of place on any executive desktop.