Big fan of NAS. A Synology device reliably had at least two roles:
-Provided a temporary Windows shared network drive while library staff migrated to SharePoint and OneDrive.
-Provided backup for a Drupal website where the Backup and Migrate (BAM) module could target the NAS volume and AWS or Azure BLOBs. Note that Drupal BAM expects Linux file system features- Windows / SAMBA share privileges don't properly align, and BAM will not work well.
-An older SOHO NAS device included a streaming media server making it a great way to locally store and stream videos like archivists' Human Libraries.
The next NAS effort will utilize PXE boot to support remote Windows recovery, perhaps again as an interim solution before using Azure. Note that whether magnetic or solid state, NAS inherits some of the backing storage technology limits - environmental requirements, durability, wear leveling etc.
Received on Fri Jan 23 2026 - 15:55:21 EST