Nas device, os, storage.

Network attached storage is a storage solution which provides centralized storage and file sharing over a computer network, together with software for storage management and security. Network-attached storage refers to single hard disk-based devices that connect to a network over Ethernet or TCP/IP, and use file-sharing protocols that allow computers to access their disks as remote volumes. A storage area network is used more in enterprise-level businesses, and consists of a network of Fibre Channel-connected storage devices (usually multiple disk arrays) that communicate with servers as large-scale local disks. NAS OS can be a separate product or available with NAS device. IT providers have started to build their own storage operating systems onto the boxes, sometimes hardwired in ASICs, but more often than not as software running in a kernel operating system or a fully-fledged server OS. Storage software approaches are increasingly preferred because of the ready availability of universal operating system platforms, whether from commercial OS producers such as Microsoft with its Storage Server or from the open source community Linux or BeOS. Therefore, a NAS device is a lot more than simply a box of disk drives. In fact, all storage systems, from the most basic USB-attached or SCSI direct attached storage (DAS) array to the most exclusive storage area network with iSCSI or FC target, most products proffer at least some additional features in their storage servers. This is also the case with NAS OS. Many NAS OSs offer additional benefits. It is possible to store music, movies, and photos on a centralized server and stream content to multiple computers, since there are storage devices with NAS OS which feature media server functionality. NAS OS can provide advanced backup capability through software, a USB port to connect an external hard drive, or RAID support to back up files. For users who want to access the storage drive remotely, there are NAS OS products that offer access over the Internet or FTP.