[Phoenix32]

NAS SOLUTIONS

I am going to be short and sweet in this section. Everyone will have an opinion on this, and all I can present is my opinion mixed with the opinions I have heard over and over and over, and over from people I trust in the industry.

There are plenty of types of NAS/File Server applications and hardware out there. The solutions you hear most often on this forum are, SNAP OS based unit, Guardian OS based units, FreeNAS, Open Filer, other factory NAS units, and of course various Windows solutions. One at a time, here we go, and yes this will be the most highly contested section. But again, I am telling you now, all I can give you is my opinion, mixed with opinions I have heard from genuine experts in the field that I trust completely.

For the purposes of this conversation, SNAP OS units are out of the equations for very basic reasons. 1) Storage limits are too small. 2) SNAP OS is no longer supported and is falling out of date rapidly with newer Operating Systems and Server applications. 3) Lastly, let’s admit it; 100baseT just doesn’t cut it for large amounts of data. These units are just plain too old and have outlived their usefulness in this area.

FreeNAS, well, this one is going to piss some people off, sorry. I know and have spoken with many genuine experts in this field and they flat out say that FreeNAS is crap, at least at this point still, and not trustworthy with any data that is important to you. Couple this with the fact that putting any hardware together worth using and you will be near enough the costs of a decent factory unit to make it just not worth while. If you are a fan of FreeNAS or one of its developers, please do not bombard me with your anger. I have a right to my opinion and it is based on opinions of people I trust. It is only an opinion. If you like it, cool, use it. I don’t, I won’t, and will not recommend it.

Open Filer has had decent enough things said about it, but I have been told by many that it is resource hungry and inefficient. This brings us back to the costs in the end for what you get in the end. Simple, you can do better.

There are as many other type factory NAS solutions as there are opinions on the subject. I could never possibly cover them all here, and the debate would also never end. Thus, for this one, just read what I say about GOS and make up your own mind.

Windows solutions are not too bad in some applications, but in fact, these solutions are not specifically designed for NAS/File Serving from the ground up. It is a lot of overkill and costs wise, usually in the same price range as other NAS solutions like GOS units that serve a more direct purpose for what they do more efficiently.

This brings us to Guardian OS (GOS). GOS has been a standard to live up to in the industry for a long time and trusted by genuine experts as a whole. It is an enterprise class solution, that fortunate for us, can be had at lower costs when looking at lower end or older equipments of this category. This is, in my and many others opinions, by far the best, well tested, mature, updated, and versatile solution available for NAS and File Serving applications. Couple this with the availability and costs of older or lower end GOS solutions, is almost a no contest for the NAS/File Serving we need in this conversation. And not the least, even for upper end applications in the enterprise world, is still trusted above many others and used in the SAS/SANS areas as well.

This part of the article was probably the most opinionated and open for heated debates, but I remind you, I just presented my opinions, you can choose to accept them or not. I have to assume many of you agree however, or you would probably not be on this forum.