In my previous two posts, I've described my most critical criteria for selecting a new NAS -- as well is the "next most important" criteria. Here, we'll talk about "nice-to-haves" and wrap-up with a pricing comparison.
Automated PC Image Backup
One of the really nice features of
WHS is the tight integration with Windows clients -- enabling a number of
scenarios, including direct PC imaging and backup.
Today, I accomplish
this by running Acronis TrueImage Home from my laptop; I do not run it from my
wife's laptop (too expensive; too much work to set up).
For my laptop, Acronis creates an image locally and copies it to the fileshare on the NAS.
For my laptop, Acronis creates an image locally and copies it to the fileshare on the NAS.
However, just like the ability to backup
directly to the cloud, I admire the elegance of a centrally managed
solution. WHS is the clear winner.
Applications
WHS is a clear winner here, with
over 100 apps written specifically for the platform by an active and engaged
community and professionals. And the Windows Server heritage means it can
run a lot more.
Even though the Drobo has an app community, the ReadyNAS
slips ahead with a Silver medal due to the larger community and app base.
Although I don't think I'll run a
great many third party apps, I liked the interest placed by the community.
Winner: WHS, Silver Medal: ReadyNAS
Flickr Synchronization
I've long used Flickr to manage my
photos online . The hardest part is finding the time to
upload & curate my collection. An app on the WHS platform offers
fix for this problem, syncing photos between the WHS folders and Flickr: Photosync.
That said, this is a user-provided app, and does not appear to be trouble-free.
ReadyNAS offers an interesting
alternative -- Photos II, an officially supported add-in allowing you to host your own photo site from the ReadyNAS.
That said, I've tired of the concept of hosting my own web services out
of the house. I think communities such
as Flickr, Picasa, Shutterfly even Facebook have rendered the "do-it-yourself"
photo site concept obsolete. But this is still a cool app I wouldn't mind
trying.
No published functionality for Drobo
related to Flickr (or other photo sites). There are no real winners here, so I'm giving WHS a Bronze (nothing for ReadyNAS or Drobo).
Pricing
I performed a fairly extensive
comparison of pricing across the three platforms, including the cost of
additional drives: I wanted latest/greatest technology - little or no compromises. I settled on the Western Digital Caviar Black line -- Western Digital's top performer in the prosumer internal hard drive space. Drive specs are:
These drives come in under $200 each on Amazon.com.
So I developed pricing based on 4 of these drives per machine. The WHS box -- the HP MediaSmart Server -- is the only box I compared that included a hard drive (1). The Drobo FS and Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus are both typically sold "drive-less". So for purposes of pricing comparison, 3 additional drives were priced for the WHS box and 4 drives each for the Drobo and ReadyNAS.
- 1TB
- SATA III
- 7200 RPM
- 64MB Cache
These drives come in under $200 each on Amazon.com.
So I developed pricing based on 4 of these drives per machine. The WHS box -- the HP MediaSmart Server -- is the only box I compared that included a hard drive (1). The Drobo FS and Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus are both typically sold "drive-less". So for purposes of pricing comparison, 3 additional drives were priced for the WHS box and 4 drives each for the Drobo and ReadyNAS.
The result is pretty much a
push:
- Drobo FS: $1,372.94
- Netgear ReadyNas Ultra 4 Plus: $1,401.33
- HP MediaSmart Server EX495 (WHS): $1,393.97
In the next & final post, results will be announced!
No comments:
Post a Comment