Netgear has announced what it claims is the world's fastest desktop network attached storage device (NAS), the 10-gigabit-Ethernet equipped ReadyNAS 716.
Designed for media-hungry small or home offices, the ReadyNAS 716 is certainly an impressive beast. Inside its safe-like black chassis, which features a front-facing dual-line liquid-crystal display and central indicator lights, is 16GB of server-class ECC memory and six SATA-III drive bays for a total possible storage of up to 24TB - assuming you're willing to risk spanning your storage pool over so many devices.
The performance claims don't come from the drives installed, however, but from the company's choice of networking: in place of the usual gigabit Ethernet ports found on desktop NAS boxes is a pair of 10-gigabit-Ethernet (10GBASE-T) network ports - allowing those with compatible switches to enjoy ten times the potential throughput of a gigabit NAS.
It's this network backbone, coupled with the capacious memory, that lets Netgear make its performance boasts with claims of the ability to stream numerous 4K videos simultaneously without stressing the system. As with the company's other ReadyNAS devices, the system runs the Linux-based ReadyNAS OS with snapshot, cloud-based replication support and automatic storage pool expansion via the X-RAID2 system. For those who need additional storage, the box includes eSATA connectivity for an optional external drive chassis - boosting the potential peak storage capacity to an impressive 84TB.
Sadly, all these features don't come cheap. Users anxious to speed up their network storage will have to shell out at least £2,200 excluding VAT for the box with no disks included, assuming the network to which it is to be connected is already 10-gig ready. The company has not indicated whether it plans to offer a cheaper variant more suited to home use, keeping at least one 10-gig port but switching to a lower amount of non-ECC memory - but should this model prove popular, it would be foolish of the company to not consider such a move.
Designed for media-hungry small or home offices, the ReadyNAS 716 is certainly an impressive beast. Inside its safe-like black chassis, which features a front-facing dual-line liquid-crystal display and central indicator lights, is 16GB of server-class ECC memory and six SATA-III drive bays for a total possible storage of up to 24TB - assuming you're willing to risk spanning your storage pool over so many devices.
The performance claims don't come from the drives installed, however, but from the company's choice of networking: in place of the usual gigabit Ethernet ports found on desktop NAS boxes is a pair of 10-gigabit-Ethernet (10GBASE-T) network ports - allowing those with compatible switches to enjoy ten times the potential throughput of a gigabit NAS.
It's this network backbone, coupled with the capacious memory, that lets Netgear make its performance boasts with claims of the ability to stream numerous 4K videos simultaneously without stressing the system. As with the company's other ReadyNAS devices, the system runs the Linux-based ReadyNAS OS with snapshot, cloud-based replication support and automatic storage pool expansion via the X-RAID2 system. For those who need additional storage, the box includes eSATA connectivity for an optional external drive chassis - boosting the potential peak storage capacity to an impressive 84TB.
Sadly, all these features don't come cheap. Users anxious to speed up their network storage will have to shell out at least £2,200 excluding VAT for the box with no disks included, assuming the network to which it is to be connected is already 10-gig ready. The company has not indicated whether it plans to offer a cheaper variant more suited to home use, keeping at least one 10-gig port but switching to a lower amount of non-ECC memory - but should this model prove popular, it would be foolish of the company to not consider such a move.
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Posted by -Xp- - Tue Nov 26 2013 13:16
Posted by dyzophoria - Tue Nov 26 2013 15:55
Posted by Gradius - Tue Nov 26 2013 18:32
Posted by Mister_Tad - Tue Nov 26 2013 20:29
With regards to the price, you have appreciate that NetGear calling it a "desktop" NAS simply means that it's not a rackmount, as opposed to them think this is going to live inside someone's home. This is competing against entry level products from "real" storage vendors - many of which are appreciably more expensive.
The quad core Xeon in this box should give it fairly decent performance for low-scale server virtualisation and CIFS for a good few users - all that for £2500 + disks ins't too bad.