One of our 3-2-1 preservation pillars is a local Synology NAS set up with
min.io so that we can write to it and our cloud pillar using the same S3
protocol.
--
Tommy Keswick, MLIS
Research Applications Developer
Caltech Library
On Tue, Feb 24, 2026 at 3:54 PM Eric Lease Morgan <
00000107b9c961ae-dmarc-request_at_lists.clir.org> wrote:
> On Jan 23, 2026, at 11:34 AM, Eric Lease Morgan <emorgan_at_nd.edu> wrote:
>
> > I am now very serousluy considering NAS -- network-accessible storage. A
> NAS is essentically an appliance. It is a set of hard drives literally
> wrapped in hardware with proproetary operating system used to do I/O,
> provide access control, implement file transfer protocols, and to some
> degree, analyze the saved data. I could build my own, but then there is the
> convenience factor.
>
>
> I'm really enjoying my NAS -- network accessible storage -- device, and I
> am advocating their use in libraries and archives. IMHO, these devices play
> to many of the core principles of librarianship and archival practice. More
> specifically, they make it realatively easy to independently archive and
> preserve digital content for the long haul.
>
> Just to reiterate, a NAS is essencially a hard drive attached your local
> network. It is a thing where you and your colleagues can store digital
> content without using any Internet connections. Through the use of a NAS,
> you actually own your data. If the Internet is unaccessible, you still have
> access to your content. (Okay, if your local network goes down, then you
> are in trouble, but you could attach the NAS to a local computer if your
> really needed.)
>
> I bought a NAS with four slots, and I bought four 4TB hard disk drives.
> After putting the drives into the NAS, and after doing a bit of
> configuration, I ended up with about 10TB of network storage for a one-time
> $1,000 out-of-pocket expense. If you fill up 10TB of disk space with sets
> of curated data/information, then I'd be impressed. In my case, I have
> cached 10's of thousands of plain text books and 100's of thousands of
> journal articles in the form of PDF files, and even after indexing/modeling
> the collection in a myriad of ways, my disk space usage is about 5TB. Your
> milage will vary.
>
> How can a NAS be more systematically used in a library or archive? Well,
> the process is a whole lot like stacks maintenance in a library. Here's a
> recipe:
>
> 1. Spend $1,000 to buy a NAS and a set of disk drives.
>
> 2. Plug the NAS into your network, and configure it to
> implement one or more file system services, such as but
> not limited to: FTP, SFTP, NFS, Samba, and rsync.
>
> 3. Share access to the NAS with your colleagues, and at the
> very least, this will enable your colleagues to mount the
> NAS as if it were a local hard drive.
>
> 4. Find all of those floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, SSDs, and USB
> drives used to store your important information. Once found,
> copy their contents to the NAS. Once done, store the floppy
> discs, etc., along with the hardware used to read/use them,
> in a safe place.
>
> 5. For extra credit, digitize stuff (books, archival
> matrials, audio cassettes, phonograph records, photographs,
> etc.), and put the result on the NAS. Like the floppy disks,
> store the originals and their associated gizmos in a safe
> place.
>
> 6. For extra extra credit, use the NAS's built-in functions
> to back up your colleagues' computers.
>
> 7. Compress the content of the NAS and copy the result to
> the cloud. In this case, you can use "cold" storage, which
> means you pay a minumum for the service, as long as you
> don't access the storage very often. In my case, this is
> a few dollars per month.
>
> 8. For extra extra extra credit, run a Web server on your
> NAS and allow colleagues and/or the public to access some
> or all of your collection.
>
> 9. Go to Step #1; librarianship and archival practice are
> never done.
>
>
> In the end, a number of things will have happened:
>
> * you will actually have your data and you will not be
> embolden to somebody (or something) else
>
> * you will have practiced 3-2-1; three copies, two storage
> mediums, one copy in a remote location
>
> * you will have minimized long-term out-of-pocket costs
>
> * you will have taken control of your own content
>
> * you will have increased the number of your technical
> skills
>
> "Yes, but what about Google Drive?" Google Drive is good for
> collaboration, not long-term archival storage, and besides, those URLs are
> really ugly. "Yes, but we already do much of that via our website." Fine,
> but are you practicing 3-2-1?
>
> In summary, I have found my NAS to be extremely empowering. I think you
> will too.
>
> --
> Eric Morgan, Librarian Emeritus
> University of Notre Dame
>
Received on Tue Feb 24 2026 - 19:39:00 EST