Best NAS/Cloud System?

[Sherrinator]

Evening all,

I recently came to the conclusion that my method of storing 30GB of photos on my phone is no longer best practice. What I really need is a system that will automatically upload my documents/photos to some sort of high capacity cloud backup storage and having local network accessibility to ensure that I have access to large file quickly.

My wife and kids all use Apple products (iPhone, Ipad). I really like the "For You" function in photos (apart from other aspects) with the Apple devices and would like some sort of system that meshes with this well.

What is everyone else's experience using Network Storage/Cloud combos and what is the best value for money? I'm thinking something with a easy-to-use interface and something that seamlessly runs in the background (like Icloud).

Cheers

 

[seanoff]

https://www.qnapshop.com.au/QNAP-TS-231P-2-Bay-Diskless-NAS-AL-212-DUAL-CORE-1GB-RAM

This will work pretty well.

 

[imperial_oz]

I'm not a big fan of using the cloud, mainly because there is no cloud, its actually somebody else's computer.

I have a large storage requirement at home (Video, photos) and use a QNAP TS-415A - 4 bay NAS unit. Easy interface and works well as a network storage solution

 

[dav3]

I'm not a big fan of using the cloud, mainly because there is no cloud, its actually somebody else's computer.

I have a large storage requirement at home (Video, photos) and use a QNAP TS-415A - 4 bay NAS unit. Easy interface and works well as a network storage solution

Cloud isn't that bad, and it's the way everything is moving, plus 30GB of selfies isn't exactly critical sensitive data. Plus some people don't want the hassle/cost of dealing with a NAS, I've got about 28TB hanging off a HP Microserver which essentially just operates as a NAS, it gets annoying at times.

Without spending too much time looking into it, I'm pretty sure the OP could just get a Western Digital MyCloud device that'll do the job, looks like under $300 for a 4TB device.

 

[imperial_oz]

Cloud isn't that bad, and it's the way everything is moving, plus 30GB of selfies isn't exactly critical sensitive data. Plus some people don't want the hassle/cost of dealing with a NAS, I've got about 28TB hanging off a HP Microserver which essentially just operates as a NAS, it gets annoying at times.

Without spending too much time looking into it, I'm pretty sure the OP could just get a Western Digital MyCloud device that'll do the job, looks like under $300 for a 4TB device.

I'll agree with some of that.

If it non-sensitive data, then perhaps there can be an argument to use a cloud based system but anything sensitive then just no unless you are uploading heavily encrypted files and even then I'd have reservations.

Even non-sensitive but important data isn't 100% safe in the cloud. Services have closed down in the past leaving people unable to recover important material - photographs etc

Like you I have large data storage needs, currently around 18 - 19 Tb and growing.

A WD device is of course a much cheaper alternative but again not without risks. A friend of mine who is heavily into photography has on several occasions, devices fail on him. I know because I've spent a lot of hours recovering photographs for him. Unless you setup the WD device as mirrored drives, you have no redundancy and portable devices do tend to have a higher failure rate.

I'm currently using a RAID 5 setup and I've had 1 disk fail, so recovery was simply letting the RAID rebuild, which took a day. Had I lost 2 disks, I would have lost the lot.

Its all swings and roundabouts but the effort and costs really should reflect the value of the data

 

[dav3]

I'll agree with some of that.

If it non-sensitive data, then perhaps there can be an argument to use a cloud based system but anything sensitive then just no unless you are uploading heavily encrypted files and even then I'd have reservations.

Even non-sensitive but important data isn't 100% safe in the cloud. Services have closed down in the past leaving people unable to recover important material - photographs etc

Like you I have large data storage needs, currently around 18 - 19 Tb and growing.

A WD device is of course a much cheaper alternative but again not without risks. A friend of mine who is heavily into photography has on several occasions, devices fail on him. I know because I've spent a lot of hours recovering photographs for him. Unless you setup the WD device as mirrored drives, you have no redundancy and portable devices do tend to have a higher failure rate.

I'm currently using a RAID 5 setup and I've had 1 disk fail, so recovery was simply letting the RAID rebuild, which took a day. Had I lost 2 disks, I would have lost the lot.

Its all swings and roundabouts but the effort and costs really should reflect the value of the data

Clearly this is nothing too sensitive since it's data being stored on the mobile devices of kids, and if it was that sensitive the ideal solution would be storing it on a system that is not internet connected, or at least heavily firewalled. It's also more likely that you'd have a major hardware crash, or a catastrophic event (house fire, etc) than someone like Apple, Google, Dropbox, etc suddenly pulling their service with no notice. Not to mention that devices like QNAPs aren't exactly immune to exploits.

As I said, most people are happy to pay a small amount for a basic service that doesn't require monitoring, maintenance, or any other thought. A service where data breaches are incredibly rare, and if they happen the sheer amount of data stored on those services means it's highly unlikely that anything of your will ever be touched. Anyway, they'd rather track down more pictures of Jennifer Lawrence's **** than photos of random people, or a kids Science project.

If it was 30GB of critical data, buy two of something like a WD MyCloud and leave one at your parents/mates house as an offsite backup, and bring it home for the occasional sync.

 

[compact72]

Sync.com

Fully encrypted

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