I did look at Synology, QNAP and the EonNAS (does ZFS) quite a lot, (Synology seems targeted to photographers more and it's what I would buy if I went NAS) and really like what they have to offer but it's only feasible if you are quite technical and invest the time to setup one of these units the way you want it. There are so many options and functions, it's basically a feature packed server, not just a direct attached device. If you want to keep it simple, go the direct attached (DAS) route, not NAS. I have not found a unit that does both - in case you're wondering.
As a new Synology who actually purchased and set one up I thought I'd respond to this. But first I want to make a recommendation that before buyng anything the OP investigate the companies reputation and especially customer feedback. Lacie for one has one of the worst reputations I've seen in a long time, and IMO it's well deserved. I come in contact with a lot of users and something I've noticed with Lacie and most of the non-professional units is their power supplies and interfaces are build rather cheaply and because of this they fail.
We're talking our data here, for many of us the data keeps on giving (to our incomes) so it's imperative to do this right. Cheap or bargain storage devices.. just not worth it. RAID is good, but keep in mind if a RAID enclosure goes bad you're just not pulling out the drives and putting in any RAID enclosure and getting your data back, you'll need an exact model, often even the same firmware version. RAID 6 is very good, but from experience running even high end RAID's I've lost my fair share of data. A multi copy backup program is vital.
With that said the OP should check out Synology's website and read about the features to see if any are useful. I personally find the cloud and the FTP extremely useful and they're very easy to set up and use. Maybe
the 1513+ would be the right size for the OP, it's worth reading about. It's also worth noting that while many of these RAID enclosures run off relatively flaky firmware, all Synology's use the same operating system which is free and comes with the unit with all the free updates. It comes in Home and Business versions.
The Home version is pretty simple to use.
From the time I had the box in front of me, it took under 30 minutes to populate it with (
3tb WD Red's and have it sitting there building it's volume. You can choose any of the popular RAID versions, but I choose Synology's own system. It's not the fastest, but it is the most compatible so Mac's and PC's are treated like native machines. I love this because we use both platforms and so do my customers. The build it image viewer is very user friendly so I'll use it for family and even my clients can easily use it. IMO compatibility across both Mac and PC platforms is very desirable.
Even as the volume was being built, the system allowed me to do the set-up. Simple things like setting the clock, giving it a device name, time zones, etc. And even before the volume was completed it let me start transferring data. So far I haven't cracked the manual, it's that intuitive.
For most people the most difficult part will be mapping the NAS as a drive. After doing so, from this point on, it was like using just another hard drive. I could create folders, drag and drop data, whatever. So far.. maybe two hours into the process.
I used the NAS just like that, nothing else, for the first 2-3 weeks. Then one day I had need of the FTP so I went into the settings, selected FTP and a few minutes later it was done. I only had to go set up my DDNS in my router, and was done. A few weeks later I wanted a private cloud to sync my email across all of my devices, so I set it up. 15 minutes tops. A dedicated Time Machine server, 5 minutes. I-tunes server, 5 minutes. DLNA server for watching movies anywhere in the house, multiple shows to different televisions, 10 minutes.
I don't know if I'll ever use the other thousand features, but it's nice to know they're there. Maybe one day I'll set up some IP cameras and I'll activate the surveillance features, or who knows what. But for sure the OP will want to read this page of their site aimed at photographers and
what one of their devices offers the photographer (a lot)..
So sure, there are lots of features, but by design they're not in your face. You''ll need to activate and set-up each one as needed. I think they're very well priced and since you can buy whatever drives you want. The 4tb WD reds are available now for $189 and the 3tb for $139. Not bad.
With the introduction this new Mac Pro I'm sure this topic will come up over and over again..
