In the past we’ve written about Network Attached Storage , NAS, and the importance of backups.
Recently Amazon Web Services revealed a new product, S3 Glacier Deep Archive ,for long-lived archive data that is accessed less than once per year. The cost? $1 per TB-month.
Using AWS S3 is not for everybody, it’s sure as not as simple as using Dropbox, Google Drive or One Drive, S# lacks the polished Sync apps. But this what backup services use in the back-end, and hopefully this price drop will pass some savings to the users of those services.
So the question is : with ever dropping cloud storage prices, is Network Attached Storage still worth it?
Consider these factors when buying a NAS device
- Cost : The average 4 bay NAS device is currently at $500, add to that 4 Hard drives at $80 to $380 each.
- Configuration and Maintenance : You will have to configure your NAS, that includes choosing the way it handles disk failure, RAID5 , RAID6 etc. , you will need deploy the firmware upgrades, which is some instances could cause loss of functions, data or brick the device all together. You’re solely responsible for protecting the device against physical or fluid damage, and for it’s continued network connectivity.
- Security : You’re solely responsible for the security of the device, there has been waves after waves of ransom-ware attacks against popular NAS device models.
All the above factors make the new pricing very attractive, when you consider that your data will be safely backed up and geographically distributed on multiple hardware.
Just remember that although Google Drive and the likes only charge you for a set amount of storage, and don’t charge you for the number of downloads and uploads or the bandwidth used, AWS S3 Does, the $1 TB/month promise is valid if the user rarely accesses the data, increased traffic means more charges.
NAS devices offer meany flashy features that simple cloud storage doesn’t, but if NAS devices manufacturers need to continue to be relevant they need to start planning their pricing in light of the pricing of the new storage classes.