Q: Can you provide some technical pointers for buying NAS instead of a PC or server?

A: At a high level, a NAS device can be described as a multiprotocol network storage appliance with an operating system optimized for file services. A NAS system, unlike a traditional PC-based file server, can act as a Fibre Channel (FC) or iSCSI storage array. It can present network shares via CIFS or NFS like a PC, but allows access to disk storage via iSCSI or FC. NAS appliances also include data protection features such as snapshots and replication. If you already have a central storage array or SAN, you can deploy a NAS gateway as an interface to the SAN disk and present it as CIFS or NFS shares. If you don't have a SAN, but still need central storage capabilities, a NAS appliance is more scalable than most PC-type file servers. If you only need to share a small amount of data on the network, a PC-based file server will likely be more cost effective.

--Pierre Dorion, Certified Business Continuity Professional, Mainland Information Systems Inc.