Network-attached storage (NAS) is a storage device connected to a local area network (LAN) that enables multiple users and client devices to retrieve data from centralized disk drives (TechTarget, 2022). NAS devices function as file-based servers, allowing users to store and retrieve files over the network. Key capabilities of NAS include:
- Centralized storage – NAS provides a central location to store files that can be accessed by multiple users.
- Shared access – Through the network, users can access, share, and transfer files stored on the NAS.
- Scalability – Additional storage can easily be added to NAS devices.
- Data protection – NAS supports RAID configurations to provide redundancy and fault tolerance.
- Remote access – Users can access NAS devices remotely over the internet or VPN.
In summary, NAS allows multiple users to store, backup, protect, and access data from a centralized location (Seagate, 2022). NAS provides more flexibility than direct attached storage.
Brief History of NAS
The first Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices were introduced in the early 1990s by Auspex Systems and others. One of the key innovations was to use the NFS (Network File System) protocol and TCP/IP networking to connect storage directly to the network. This allowed organizations to consolidate storage and share files across multiple servers and clients. In 1996, NetApp introduced the FAServer, one of the first commercially successful NAS devices, featuring a unified storage architecture and built-in data management software. Over the next decade, many companies entered the NAS market like EMC Celerra, IBM, Dell, HP, and more. NAS evolved with greater capacity, performance, redundancy, and enterprise features.
By the 2000s, NAS was widely adopted for file sharing, backup, and storage consolidation use cases. Key innovations included scale-out NAS architectures to grow capacity and performance linearly. The emergence of flash storage and SSD caching further accelerated performance. Today, leading vendors include NetApp, Dell EMC, and QNAP in addition to hybrid cloud NAS solutions.
Benefits of NAS
NAS offers several key benefits that have led to its continued popularity over the years. Some of the main advantages of NAS include:
Shared storage. One of the primary benefits of NAS is that it provides shared storage that can be accessed by multiple users and devices on a network. This allows data to be centralized and accessed from anywhere, rather than being siloed on individual devices. As TechTarget notes, “NAS is a good option to store unstructured data, including images, Word documents and spreadsheets.” (Source)
Scalability. NAS systems are highly scalable, meaning storage capacity can be easily expanded by adding additional hard drives. This makes it easy to increase storage as needs grow over time. According to Seagate, NAS “scales nearly infinitely” allowing you to “set it and forget it.” (Source)
Lower costs. Compared to other storage solutions like SAN (storage area network), NAS tends to be a more affordable option. NAS uses commodity hardware rather than proprietary hardware, keeping costs down. And there are no licensing fees for NAS file servers. This makes NAS a budget-friendly choice for many SMBs and home users.
Drawbacks of NAS
While NAS provides numerous benefits, it also has some potential drawbacks to consider:
Single point of failure – Having all storage consolidated into a single NAS device creates a single point of failure. If the NAS fails or becomes unavailable, access to all files and data is disrupted. This risk can be mitigated by replicating or backing up the NAS to another device or cloud storage. However, network issues, hardware failures, power outages or other problems affecting the NAS will impact all users and applications relying on it.
Performance limitations – NAS can deliver strong performance for small workgroups accessing mostly static content. But organizations requiring high bandwidth, parallel access or low latency may find NAS underpowered, especially for transactional databases or other dynamic workloads. The processing power, RAM, and network connectivity on most NAS models have ceilings that may constrain performance at scale compared to direct-attached storage or SANs.
Sources:
[1] https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/tip/Consider-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-NAS
[2] https://www.ecmsp.co.uk/it-blog/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-a-nas-drive-and-how-does-it-differ-from-the-cloud/
Trends in NAS Usage
NAS adoption has seen steady growth over the past decade. According to research by MarketsandMarkets, the global NAS market size was valued at $25.7 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $51 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 11.3% [1]. Fortune Business Insights predicts the market will grow from $34.6 billion in 2023 to $77.5 billion in 2026, a CAGR of 14.1% [2]. This growth is being driven by rising data volumes that require scalable storage and the need for data backup and recovery solutions.
A key trend has been the move towards NAS systems with all-flash architecture. All-flash NAS offers greater performance compared to traditional hard disk drive systems. Adoption is being driven by the decreasing cost of flash storage as well as the performance demands of modern workloads like virtualization, databases, media processing, and analytics.
Cloud-based NAS solutions have also seen rising popularity, enabling businesses to avoid large upfront investments in on-premises infrastructure. However, many organizations still prefer to keep sensitive data within their own data centers due to security and compliance concerns.
Overall, analysts forecast strong, sustained growth for NAS solutions as businesses and consumers generate exponentially larger quantities of data that need to be stored, protected, and made easily accessible.[1][2]
[1] https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/network-attached-storage-market-35395533.html
[2] https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/network-attached-storage-market-100505
Use Cases for NAS Today
NAS devices are still widely used today for storage and backup purposes, especially in home and small business environments. Some of the most common use cases include:
Media Storage
One of the most popular uses for NAS is centralized media storage and streaming. NAS devices provide ample storage space for large media libraries while allowing access from multiple devices over the network. Many NAS systems also come with built-in media server software for streaming music, photos, and videos to various clients like smart TVs, media players, and mobile devices. According to users on Reddit, media storage and streaming remains a primary use case for Synology NAS devices in homes. Source
Backups
NAS is commonly used to perform regular backups of computers and mobile devices on the local network. The always-on nature of NAS makes it easy to schedule nightly backups of important files. Most NAS operating systems have user-friendly software to automate backups. Offsite backup services like Backblaze also integrate with NAS devices for hybrid onsite/offsite backup. Backblaze notes NAS backup as a key use case for consumers and businesses. Source
Archiving
With abundant storage capacities, NAS serves as cost-effective long-term archival storage for historical business records, personal photos, documents, and other media. NAS provides centralized indexed access to archive data. Many organizations use NAS appliances for compliant archiving and data retention policies. At home, NAS lets users consolidate archives of family photos, videos, financial records, and other documents in one searchable location.
NAS in the Cloud
Moving NAS storage to the cloud has become an increasingly popular option over the past few years. Cloud NAS can refer to remote storage that is accessed over the internet but acts like local storage from the user’s perspective (What is cloud NAS (cloud network attached storage)? – TechTarget). The cloud NAS is hosted and managed by a third party provider, taking the burden off the end user while still providing the benefits of network attached storage.
Some of the key benefits of cloud NAS include scalability, accessibility, and lower hardware costs. With cloud NAS, you can easily scale up or down your storage capacity on demand. The NAS is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, rather than being restricted to the local network. Additionally, using cloud NAS means no large upfront investments in hardware and lower ongoing maintenance costs (Cloud NAS – Wasabi).
Popular options for cloud NAS today include solutions from Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and companies like Wasabi that specialize in cloud storage. While cloud NAS used to be mostly targeted at enterprises and large organizations, it has become more affordable for SMBs as competition increases.
NAS Alternatives
While NAS remains popular for many use cases, there are some alternatives for network storage that have gained traction in recent years:
DAS (Direct Attached Storage) – With DAS, external drives are directly connected to a server, rather than sitting on the network. This avoids network latency issues, and may have better performance for some workloads. However, DAS does not allow multiple servers to access the storage easily. DAS connects directly to the server, rather than using the network.
SAN (Storage Area Network) – A SAN provides block-level access to storage, unlike the file-level access of NAS systems. SANs are known for high performance and scalability. However, they are generally more complex and expensive to set up compared to NAS. SAN storage is accessed over the network like NAS, but optimized for block storage performance.
Object Storage – Object storage systems are gaining popularity as a scalable alternative for unstructured data. Rather than using files and folders, object storage manages data as objects in a flat structure. This can scale to exabyte levels and makes it ideal for cloud storage and archives. However, object storage lacks some of the shared file system capabilities of NAS.
The Future of NAS
NAS technology continues to evolve with new innovations on the horizon. According to one industry report, the global NAS market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 9% through 2034, reaching over $16 billion in revenue (Future Market Insights, 2023). This growth will be fueled by several key trends.
One major area of innovation is integrating AI and machine learning into NAS systems. This can enable more intelligent storage optimization, predictive analytics, and automated management. For example, AI can study data access patterns to optimize file placement and caching for faster performance.
Software-defined NAS architectures are also emerging, allowing more flexible storage provisioning through software rather than dedicated hardware. This makes NAS more scalable and cost-effective. Major vendors like Dell and HPE now offer software-defined NAS products.
Finally, cloud-based and hybrid NAS solutions are growing in popularity. Rather than managing storage locally, users can leverage cloud platforms like Amazon S3 or Azure NetApp Files for easy scalability. Hybrid NAS provides the best of both worlds – local performance with offsite backup and disaster recovery. According to Frank Dammon, “NAS will continue to be critical in managing and storing data” across on-prem and cloud environments (Dammon, 2023).
In summary, NAS is poised for robust growth thanks to AI, software-defined infrastructure, and hybrid cloud capabilities. These innovations will further solidify NAS as a staple of enterprise storage well into the future.
Conclusion
In summary, NAS is still commonly used today for several key reasons. NAS provides centralized storage and file sharing which is useful for small businesses and home networks. The ability to easily add storage capacity via additional hard drives makes NAS scalable. NAS offers redundancy to prevent data loss. However, NAS can be limited in performance, security, and functionality compared to other storage solutions. NAS is well-suited for basic file storage and sharing but may not meet the needs of larger organizations. The future of NAS likely involves integration with cloud storage in hybrid scenarios to get the best of both worlds. But standalone NAS still has its place for cost-effective, flexible local storage and backup.
NAS remains a viable storage solution today for many use cases where simplicity, shared access, and scalability are desirable. With the benefits and drawbacks carefully evaluated, NAS can serve an important role as part of a comprehensive data storage strategy.