For those who don’t trust their data in the cloud, the best storage solution is usually local storage, i.e. an external hard drive or computer. The advantage of this solution is that you don’t have to pay money to store your data (other than buying drives), and you don’t have to worry about someone else being able to access your data (for the most part).
However, there are several disadvantages to storing everything locally on internal and external hard drives. First, if you don’t have a good backup solution, you are at greater risk of losing your data. Cloud storage companies use many redundant backup layers to protect all of your data.
Second, accessing data stored on a single external hard drive from anywhere in the world on any device can be very difficult and frustrating. Cloud storage services usually simplify this task by having desktop and mobile applications to access data.
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
If you want the benefits of cloud storage, but the security is that everything is stored locally, you should consider setting up a personal cloud storage. Again, you get all the mobile and desktop apps and everything will be in sync, but the data will be stored locally on your own devices.
Again, you won’t have any monthly payments to worry about, but you will have a higher initial cost. Personal cloud storage is also really good for anyone with terabytes of data they need to store but don’t want to pay the huge monthly costs associated with anything over 1TB. For example, after a 1TB plan on Google Drive, it goes down to 10TB and you need to spend $ 99 per month.
With OneDrive, you can only add extra space after 1 TB in 50 GB increments. Each 50 GB costs $ 1.99. To get 10 TB, you’ll have to pay a whopping $ 360 a month! With Dropbox, you can get a maximum of 1 TB with a Pro account. If you want more, you need to become a business customer with at least 5 users.
Understanding network hard drives
So what do you need to buy to set up your own cloud storage? Basically, you are buying a network storage device or NAS. Please note that a NAS device is slightly different from a network hard drive.
In my opinion, a network hard drive is a separate hard drive inside a device that connects to the network and provides a web interface for managing and accessing data. The NAS has multiple hard drives that can be configured in a RAID array to provide built-in data protection.
I recommend staying away from single network hard drive solutions because it’s pretty much the same as using a regular external hard drive, except you get all the cloud-based features. However, if a drive fails, you lose all of your data, which may or may not be copied elsewhere.
For example, if you’re considering a WD My Cloud Personal NAS., the single drive is really just a network hard drive. If you get a version with two drives, then in my opinion it can be considered a NAS.
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
However, as you can see, you can get 8TB storage for about $ 400, which is not bad at all. There is, of course, one caveat. The reason I suggest a NAS device with two or more hard drives is for data protection. If you put your disks in a RAID array, one disk can fail and you won’t lose any data.
All the devices mentioned here support RAID on NAS devices and are really very easy to set up. The only problem is that you are wasting available space. For example, if you take an 8 TB NAS and use RAID 1, you only have 4 TB of free space. If you are using RAID 5, you will need at least 3 drives, but you will get two-thirds of the total space of all three drives.
Considering you can get a 16TB dual-drive NAS for around $ 750, even 8TB is probably more than enough, even for creative professionals.
Other benefits of the NAS system
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
In addition to the benefits of a personal cloud and the ability to sync data across all your devices, NAS devices provide many other benefits. Not every device I mention below supports all of these features, with the exception of Synolgy, so be sure to check the features on the device you’re considering.
- Protect your data when using a multi-bay NAS with RAID
- Stream video locally and remotely from your NAS to game consoles, set-top boxes, smartphones and tablets.
- Ability to connect IP cameras to NAS for video surveillance and recording
- Ability to backup local computers (Windows, Mac, Linux) to NAS.
- Ability to backup entire NAS to online cloud storage services like Amazon S3, Glacier, etc.
- Ability to use your NAS, FTP server, web server, mail server and so on using applications.
- The ability to easily share files and folders with anyone.
As you can see, the benefits of having a NAS go far beyond just having your own personal cloud storage. There is a lot you can do with these devices, which makes the initial cost more affordable.
Personal cloud storage solutions
So which NAS should you choose? Well, when it comes to cloud storage, you’re really looking for great software. All major hard drive manufacturers have NAS devices with some form of personal cloud option, but few perform well and have a suite of cloud data management applications.
Synology
Synology
I personally own a WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra and a Synology DS 411 + II and find Synology to be an absolutely amazing device. My Synology NAS is a few years old but can still be upgraded to the latest DSM (DiskStation Manager). The software running on the NAS is excellent and almost Windows-like.
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
They have several mobile apps that work very well for managing the NAS, browsing your files, streaming photos and videos, and managing your personal cloud What I love about Synology is that they constantly update their hardware and software to keep up with the latest technology. They also have many different models with a wide price range.
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
If you’re not sure which one is right for you, just use their NAS selection tool. If you are not a technician, don’t worry. It is very easy to add hard drives to these devices. Plus, in many cases, you can buy them with discs already installed.
Western Digital My Cloud
Western Digital My Cloud
Another product I would recommend is the WD My Cloud and My Cloud EX series. Overall, these devices are great, but they lack the feature set and elegance of Synology products. I found them a bit more difficult to set up and didn’t like the choice of mobile apps.
While Synology pretty much has separate apps for everything, WD only has two apps that aren’t great at what they’re supposed to do anyway. However, if you are not overly concerned with all these additional features, WD My Cloud products are still a good choice.
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
You can also check out the Expert Series, which is a more powerful NAS in addition to cloud capabilities.
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
Seagate
Seagate
Seagate is one of the largest hard drive manufacturers in the world, so it should come as no surprise that they are also in the NAS business. I have not personally used their Personal Cloud Storage drives and would recommend researching them before purchasing anything.
Personal Cloud Storage“/>
The drive only has around 3.5 stars on Amazon and most people seem to complain about the software. Again, this is where Synology really stands out and excels over everyone else.
There are obviously more options out there for personal cloud storage, but this is your best bet on the market right now. If something new or better comes out, I will definitely add this information to this post. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to comment. Enjoy!
–