While SMBs realize the benefits of enterprise-class NAS, they still need a good reason to make the switch, and it’s not always easy to do this. However, the three reasons we’ve highlighted here may help persuade you that enterprise storage can be suitable for your data center.
Increased Reliability and data availability
Enterprise NAS storage can help reduce downtime and costly data loss by utilizing redundant components and advanced reliability features that are not available in standalone NAS devices. For example, most enterprise-grade Network Attached Storage devices are configured in high levels of RAID that ensure high data availability even if a couple of drives go bad. It makes multiple copies of all your files over different drives in the cluster, reducing the chance of an all-out data loss to a minimum.
Furthermore, the best NAS systems come with redundant power supplies and other redundant components. In case of a power outage, your systems remain online, and there is minimum downtime. Furthermore, with periodic snapshots, the chance of data loss in a case of a power outage is reduced.
Better Support for Growing Data Volumes and Workloads
Data can quickly get out of control when businesses expand. Modern enterprise NAS storage systems support the rapid growth of data volumes. They can handle various workloads, from small business services to large-scale enterprise applications. This is especially useful for businesses that have to deal with big data applications and rely on heavy computing power to process that data.
Lower Total Cost of Ownership
Combine the enterprise-grade reliability, performance, and availability of enterprise NAS storage with its lower total cost of ownership over time, and you can see how it can be a key driver of your company’s agility to enable business innovation while delivering cost efficiency and business continuity. With NAS storage at your helm, you can dramatically reduce your capital expenditure long-term costs and increase your ROI to a great extent.
Scalability and performance
Enterprise NAS serves as an excellent entry point for businesses looking to scale up and scale out their storage capacity as they expand their operations or launch new projects or initiatives. NAS storage can come with as low as four drive tower to 36 bay rackmount that can house over a petabyte of storage. But even that can quickly fill up, and there are only so many drives you can add to a rack before it reaches its capacity. That is where scale-out type architecture comes in.
With scale-out architecture, you virtually have unlimited capacity. You can add more storage devices better known as ‘nodes’ in a cluster and keep adding them until you reach your desired capacity. This approach increases not only the capacity but also performance. Each node has its independent hardware contributing to the power mix. We recommend checking StoneFly super scale out NAS systems.
Bottom Line
In sum, enterprise NAS storage can provide significant benefits to businesses of all sizes. Data centers are an integral part of any business. They serve as the backbone of daily operations, and if the data center goes down, so will your business.
This is why you must find a solid solution to protect your data center against unexpected downtime. A well-designed enterprise NAS storage system can go a long way in ensuring that your company’s most vital data is available at all times.
This is because these systems can harness the power of redundant storage and use in-built fault tolerance measures effectively. And with analysts pointing out that up to 30% of all data center downtime is due to machine failures and redundancy problems, it’s clear that enterprises need a practical storage solution for their diverse requirements.
