How do NAS and surveillance HDDs differ from regular desktop drives?
Network-attached storage (NAS) and surveillance hard disk drives (HDDs) are designed and tested to deliver reliable, long-term 24×7 operation. The drives found in most desktop and laptop computers aren’t built with this type of usage in mind.
Moreover, NAS HDDs, such as the Toshiba N300 and surveillance HDDs, typically incorporate rotational vibration (RV) sensors. These enable multiple drives to be safely mounted close together in the same enclosure, and still operate reliably. Without the sensors, there’s a risk of rotational vibration affecting other drives in a multi-bay system.
Where do NAS and surveillance drives sit in relation to the high-end HDDs found in servers?
Like NAS and surveillance HDDs, server-grade hard drives are designed for 24×7 operation and for systems where multiple disks operate in close proximity. The key difference is around data workloads: server HDDs are built for the high-volume work associated with large numbers of users and intensively used production databases. NAS and surveillance HDDs are engineered for the less-demanding workloads typical of surveillance or central network data storage.
Consequently, NAS and surveillance HDDs sit between server-grade and desktop-type drives, both in terms of workload capability and price.
With more and more data being stored in the cloud, what is driving the continued demand for local storage, particularly NAS?
We’ve all heard about the global data explosion, and while the cloud offers part of the storage solution, there are situations where data needs to be housed locally. There is also an increasing appreciation of the importance of robust, reliable backups. Combined with the world’s ever-growing data volumes, this need to keep copies of data is multiplying storage capacity requirements across the board, from home users with NAS- and surveillance systems to large enterprises.
NAS systems have evolved and now incorporate many of the features you would previously only see in more-expensive Enterprise storage server systems with Fibre Channel connections. This means that as storage demands grow, particularly in businesses, NAS systems with Toshiba’s N300 NAS HDD can be used for ever-larger parts of it.