How SMBs can select a NAS system

A network attached storage (NAS) system can be a great solution for the storage needs of a small to midsized business (SMB).

Since managing storage is not the main business of most SMBs, they want to minimize the efforts and costs of doing that. To ease the burden of managing their storage capacity needs, many SMBs turn to NAS systems for the following reasons:

The major considerations for selecting a NAS system are:

Bringing a NAS into an SMB environment really may be as simple as setting the IP address.

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But addressing the security needs to be considered as well. An uninterruptible power system (UPS) is also recommended for the NAS system.

An SMB may also want to consider the following functionalitieis:

This is a relatively short list of items to research in making a NAS selection. Doing your homework will pay off.

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Kerberos and its place in NAS authentication

Randy Kerns is an independent storage consultant. In the past, he served as vice president of strategy and planning for storage at Sun Microsystems Inc., and covers storage and storage management software including SAN and NAS analysis.

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