Is ready nas an economical storage solution

Hi anirudha , the answer heavily depends on the criteria you want to use to evaluate potential solutions.

 

However, I would just take a simple measure like "$ to pay per TiB" (or TB as you might prefer) to get a simplified answer.

 

The available capacity to store your data is varying with the RAID concept you will apply when setting up your nas.

To checkout what is possible see the NETGEAR RAID calculator here.

https://rdconfigurator.netgear.com/raid/index.html

 

There might be other criteria, which can not easily be measured in $ like:

Security (How easy might it be for somebody to steal your data?)

Availability level (How resilient your solution might be against inherent issues, eg hardware or software problems?)

Longevity (How long will firmware be upgraded or how compatible will the hardware be to accept changes in components to be added in the future?)

etc :-)

 

Kind regards

---

anirudha wrote:

Hi, I looking into Ready NAs and Is ready nas an economical storage solution

---

That's a bit like asking if an automobile is economical.  The answer depends on your transportation needs.

 

The main reason for my NAS is that it allows me to consolidate my storage.  I used to have files scattered across various PCs and on various USB drives, optical media, etc.  The NAS lets me put everything on one device that I can access conveniently from everywhere.  Consolidation also simplifies my backup - since I have only one central repository (the NAS) to back up.

 

There are three other options for storage consolidation that I know of:

1. Cloud Storage (google drive, one drive, etc)
2. Connecting a USB drive to a PC or a router
3. Using a PC as a file server

 

Current Google prices for 10 TB of cloud storage is $100US per month.  You can purchase a ReadyNAS that gives you the same storage (with RAID protection) for about $900 - an RN212 and two 10 TB drives.  So if you need that much storage, the ReadyNAS would pay back in less than a year.  Note I'd actually recommend an RN214 or an RN424 for that amount of storage, and they would also pay back quite quickly.

 

Connecting USB drives to a router cheaper than a NAS, but also won't perform as well, and wouldn't support RAID.

 

If you have a suitable desktop PC already, then it could be cheaper to use as a file server.  But an entry-level ReadyNAS (RN200 series) would be less expensive if you don't.

I have been asking myself the very same question over the last several days - comparing multiple brands, models etc.. here is my thinking...  with ReadyNas I could buy a NAS Device with either 1G or 10G ports and a variety of drives supported 2 to 12 drives..

 

For example let's say we buy the RN628X with 8 bays 10G ports  and I install 6x10TB drives + 1x4TB +1x6TB (total 8 drives) with RAID6 i would have 21.8Tib usable, 7.28Tib used for protect and 34.6Tib completely unused..  and 2 drives could fail... with Netgear XRAID2 or Synology  - I can take "full advantage" of my drives my space would be 45.4Tib 18.2 Protection (none unused)  - this means that athough the QNAP 16bay is "cool" it doesn't support this so it's "off my list"  - but it does have SSD Caching which I don't believe Readynas has (install one SSD for cache - the rest for storage using XRAID2 storage advantages 

 

Now the problem with Netgear/Synology a single RAID6 drive failure is the "rebuild time" can take Days/weeks to recover with Btrfs - what if we could recover a drive a 14TB drive failure in 30 Minutes?  so we look at a product that offers "Erasure encoding" /Clustering with 2 drive enclosures.. from a company like 45Drives that uses GlusterFS, or Qumulo QFS file system or we want "instant recovery to any second in time.. with no snapshots" like Reduxio - much better solution then Readynas..  problem is 160TB is like $80,000 and "yearly license fees for the NAS OS (Qumulo) for that price you could buy R4360X (60bay unit with 60 drives for around 980TB RAID60) and no "yearly software license for OS 6

 

What about using Windows Server 2019 - with Direct Storage Spaces.. just grab a bunch of random hard drives with 3 servers setup your own Cluster server.. with whatever  hardware you have around.. using ReFs - I've not tried it yet but it's all Command line - no GUI

 

Basically the answer is ReadyNas is the best "bang for the buck" - what do others think?