The Synology Diskstation DS3612xs NAS
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| My two DS3612xs boxes, next to an old MacBook Pro 15". Green lights represent occupied disk bays. |
Why a NAS?
In our house we have used one or more NAS devices for many years. We started with a Infrant ReadyNAS X6, and over the years updated to ReadyNAS NV+'s. (Infrant was purchased by Netgear along the way, and, in my humble opinion, the ReadyNAS line stagnated as a result).We used these devices for multiple purposes. Our house is loaded up with Apple products. We have Apple TVs hooked up to three televisions, an old MacBook Pro being used as an iTunes server and to serve movies to the Apple TVs (we own a large collection of Bluray and DVD disks that we've converted for use by iTunes over the years), and a few other MacBook Pro's and Air's in use at various times by different family members.
Since my daughter was born, I've taken tens of thousands of photos of her, which generates a lot of data (I take photos in RAW format using a variety of Sony cameras). At last count it was 3 TB or so. We also generate a lot of backup data using Time Machine with each of our MacBooks (around 2TB there). And that digital movie collection is eating up 6TB. Not to mention digital music, a pile of Xcode projects and other data I like to keep synchronized between my daily driver MacBook Pro and my travel MacBook Air, and various other bits of data.
Fundamentally, a NAS enables us to provide what looks like one or more shared drives that can be accessed by any of our devices (including iPhones and iPads) from anywhere in the house (or, in fact, from anywhere in the world). It also takes the place of Apple's Time Capsule, allowing our Macs to backup wirelessly anywhere in the house without having to plug in a network cable or a USB drive.
While we could hook up storage to our "server" MacBook Pro and share it from there, a stand-alone device is more reliable and efficient (and, in the case of the Synology Diskstations, provides more built-in functionality without having to mess with additional software or hardware).
