NAS with Private Cloud vs Cloud Storage

[007Mi6]

Looking at the following options. Any opinion guys?

(1) Synology DS220J ($234) + 2x 4TB Toshiba ($300)

Pro is more storage, con is more upfront cost and possibly less integration, need constant internet at home

(2) Google Drive 2TB ($140/year)

Integration with iPhone is not as good and cannot use for sync photos naturally. Cannot use for WhatsApp backup on iPhone

(3) iCloud 2TB ($140/year)

The opposite of Google Drive. Not sure how useful is this compared to Google drive as I am confused with the sync options

 

[trenzterra]

Are you planning for long term archival purposes or need to constant access?

For cloud storage, can consider Office 365 also which comes with 1tb onedrive storage. For long term archival can try Amazon aws, Google Cloud Storage or Microsoft Azure.

I use a combination of all three for my essential data. Cons of NAS is that in case of fire or something all your data is gone

 

[007Mi6]

Hi, I am looking at constant access.

 

[hafiz116]

I started with a DS416 Play about 5 years ago which has 4 bays but I loaded up 3 x 6TB HDD’s to run RAID 5 so that I have the hot swappable option as I backup all my family photos and videos. About 3 years later I upgraded to a 916+ which is another 4 bay unit and I moved my drives over.

Here are the key services I run: -
1. Moments - photo & video backup for my extended family. About 10 people’s phones & iPads.
2. Makes my life easy when sharing files with others and it you can provide urls that expire.
3. DS Cam - I have 2 x 720P cameras constantly recording to my NAS and allocated 20GB of space that auto overwrites itself. I believe the recordings kept are more than a month.
4. DS Video - ripped a lot of movies and stream them to all my devices. Also supports transcoding but you need to either get the Play or + models.
5. Backup - a backup client that backs up my MacBook Pro.
6. VPN - when I travel for work I’m able to VPN home to enjoy being online as if I’m at home. Bypass block content etc.
7. DS Get - a torrent client to download freeware. Not used this much lately as I’m busy with work so only really use this when I’m in learning mode.
8. Virtual Machine - run some VM’s to aid in learning.

Pros
1. Can create many accounts for people and really restrict what services they can use.
2. Huge storage that I’ve not had to upgrade since I put the NAS up.
3. Low power consumption and I leave mine on 24x7.
4. Redundancy - Hot swappable if/when drives fail. On my setup I can afford to have 1 drive fail at a time. To date I’ve had 2 drives that built up a large number of bad sectors and eventually fail. Bought a replacement, pull out the old drive, replaced with the new and did not lose any data.
5. Good speed accessing my data as my NAS I have fibre internet. Remember you will access the NAS most of the time at home on your own LAN making it Super fast to any cloud service out there.

To be continued,...

 

[hafiz116]

Cons
1. Cost isn’t cheap for the 4 Bay but does provide redundancy with the tolerance of loosing 1 HDD.
2. Stops working if there is a problem with your internet at home. These days the internet is reliable so not a problem!
3. drives do fail over time so there is a cost to replace them. On the plus side the drives are getting cheaper and cheaper.

Summary
Although the cost isn’t cheap I would not do this any other way as I am using enough of the services to justify it and for so many people. If your use case is just for cloud storage alone for one device then maybe using iCloud or Google Drive is a better option.

If you are only going for a 2 bay NAS I would recommend running in RAID 1 so if u buy 2 x 4TB you will only be able to use 4TB to accommodate redundancy.

Also I keep my drives running constantly (do not let them spin up and down) to increase the lifetime of the drives. If you go into mega power save mode the drives go to sleep and re-spinning them up creates an initial delay when accessing and adds to the wear of the drives.

Hope this helps in your decision on this.

 

[watzup_ken]

My questions to TS are these,

1) Do you have massive amounts of things to store? You should consider what are crucial things that you need to store only and determine the amount of space required.

2) Would you want to manage/ maintain the NAS, including the need to ensure backups constantly?

Based on my own experience, NAS gives you more control and storage options as compared to the likes of iCloud and Google Cloud. However, you will need to be willing to set it up and maintain it (not that much maintenance). You should also consider how much storage you will need because there is no point getting 2TB/ 4TB when you are only using a fraction of it.

As to Google Cloud or iCloud, I feel it depends on whether you are heavily vested in Android or Apple's ecosystem. I believe Google cloud is easier to access across all the OS, i.e. it works with Windows 10, and iOS. However my personal opinion is that I am not that comfortable with storing files in Google because after all, their main business is advertising. But its your preference.

 

[karlgantry]

Are the pros and cons below based from your personal experiences bros?

 

[hafiz116]

Are the pros and cons below based from your personal experiences bros?

Yes my own personal experience. I’m still using my NAS and itching to upgrade for a smaller SSD one. Hmmmmm

 

[thisislife]

Looking at the following options. Any opinion guys?

(1) Synology DS220J ($234) + 2x 4TB Toshiba ($300)

Pro is more storage, con is more upfront cost and possibly less integration, need constant internet at home

(2) Google Drive 2TB ($140/year)

Integration with iPhone is not as good and cannot use for sync photos naturally. Cannot use for WhatsApp backup on iPhone

(3) iCloud 2TB ($140/year)

The opposite of Google Drive. Not sure how useful is this compared to Google drive as I am confused with the sync options

Gdrive is not 2tb a year, it's unlimited

 

[stupidog]

Gdrive is not 2tb a year, it's unlimited

how did you get unlimited ?

how much to pay annually ?

 

[thisislife]

how did you get unlimited ?

how much to pay annually ?

12 USD per month

dam sian, last time was 10 USD, now increase by 2 USD

but okay la, can't complain for unlimited storage

 

[Swiftbladez]

how did you get unlimited ?

how much to pay annually ?

Apparently

The only way to get unlimited storage options is to use G Suite for Business, and then, you need at least 6 users at $12/month each to get unlimited storage.

There are those "shady" sellers selling such accounts though, not sure how reliable.

 

[thisislife]

Apparently



There are those "shady" sellers selling such accounts though, not sure how reliable.

yes for G Suite business, no to at least 6 users. I am the only user in mu "organization"

 

[trenzterra]

https://gsuite.google.com.sg/intl/en_sg/pricing.html

Here write 1tb if less than 6 users?

 

[watzup_ken]

There are those "shady" sellers selling such accounts though, not sure how reliable.

Highly NOT recommended to get those shady cheap accounts. These are tied to some "company", and there is a high chance you will lose access to the account at some point in time with no warnings. I was a victim and thus, this warning.

Please pay for a proper personal Cloud account with a reputable Cloud service provider.

 

[watzup_ken]

Are the pros and cons below based from your personal experiences bros?

Personal experience.

If you don't want the hassle of maintaining, best to just stick to a reputable Cloud service provider. Generally, you just have to install the app on your mobile devices and it works right out of the box. Neither do you need to worry about backups and such.

NAS is good if you want more control and also the option for more storage. Cloud providers charge significantly more as you move beyond 2TB.

 

[naked123]

i use my orangepi lite 2 for nas

 

[thisislife]

https://gsuite.google.com.sg/intl/en_sg/pricing.html

Here write 1tb if less than 6 users?

 

[ipaq4444]

Are you planning for long term archival purposes or need to constant access?

For cloud storage, can consider Office 365 also which comes with 1tb onedrive storage. For long term archival can try Amazon aws, Google Cloud Storage or Microsoft Azure.

I use a combination of all three for my essential data. Cons of NAS is that in case of fire or something all your data is gone

can i ask what the intention of getting so many different type?


##gdrive

 

[Hafi]

can i ask what the intention of getting so many different type?


##gdrive

redundancy backups... if you have critical data that you cannot afford to lose then it makes sense to replicate them into different data centers or storage providers.