While Network Attached Storage has been around since the early 1980’s it was designed to work in server based environments and help reduce the load on “big iron” servers. It wasn’t until the advent of home networks and fast, large and cheap storage that NAS’s caught on in the Small Office / Home Office and even now small / Medium Business environments where access to an IT budget large enough to afford a server is years and many day dreams removed from reality. Not everyone or even every company needs a full fledged (i.e. expensive) server, yet they do have a need for file & print services; albeit at a significantly reduced level and significantly reduced price. It is here that modern NAS’s have found a useful and highly profitable niche for themselves. In many ways it is easier to consider modern NAS’s as “mini-servers” but the more correct appellation would be “Network Appliance” in that they fulfill many of the roles a server would but at heart they are just a modified PC.
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Review: Hardware Canucks
Mar 13, 2008, 08:30 AM
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