QNAP announces a 10GbE-capable 5-bay NAS

Article QNAP logo courtesy of QNAP

QNAP Announces 10GbE Ready AMD NAS | SmallNetBuilder

From the horse’s mouth

QNAP

TS-563 Turbo NAS – Product Page

My Comments

QNAP have raised the bar when it comes to defining the a business-ready premium network-attached-storage unit. This is in the form of the TS-563 Turbo NAS which is a 5-bay desktop unit capable of a RAID 5 with “hot-spare” disk and hot-swapping.

But the NAS uses an AMD quad-core processor fit for a regular computer as its brain and can support RAM of up to 16Gb. As well, the unit has a PCIe expansion slot so it can be connected to a 10GbE Ethernet network connection once you purchase and install a PCIe 10GbE interface card. It is highlighting the fact that the premium small-business NAS units are approaching the same kind of power that was expected out of a dedicated tower-style computer that was used as a small business’s server but are the same size as a traditional kitchen breadbox.

This NAS has 5 USB ports with one being on the front for “walk-up” connectivity. This isn’t just to connect a backup disk, a printer or a UPS to permit orderly and safe shutdown during a blackout. Rather, it is also to allow you to connect up to two of QNAP’s UX-series expansion enclosures for increased disk capacity. These enclosure could allow you to create larger multi-disk storage setups with varying levels of capacity and fault-tolerance.

Even though this is a NAS unit pitched at the business market, the QNAP TS-563 Turbo NAS still runs the QTS 4.1 operating system which has all the expectations and software to have it become either a branch-office file server, small-business NAS or home media server.

This is a sign of things to come for small-business computing where you can have a small NAS working as a data hub for these businesses yet you still have the performance and power of a traditional “tower-style” PC-based server.

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