NAS for file storage: Pros and cons

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A NAS appliance, if it is in a fault tolerant configuration, is usually better than a pair of servers because it is specialized. This means that it does not allow additional software products to be run on it (thereby reducing the risk of misbehaving or interfering software). Also, it has fewer administrative tasks to be performed, which makes it a simpler implementation for file storage.

Given the right choice of products, I think NAS is always a better option than generic file serving.