Tag: Thecus

Thecus to offer a NAS with integrated uninterruptable power supply

Article

Thecus Adds NAS With UPS Inside | SmallNetBuilder

From the horse’s mouth

Thecus

Press Release

N5810PRO 5-bay NAS Product Page

My Comments

Thecus N5810PRO Small Business NAS press photo courtesy of ThecusA common issue with running a network-attached storage is making sure that the data is intact even if things go wrong with the AC power. This is something that can easily go wrong in regional and rural areas where there is a combination of overhead power lines and overgrowing trees and it just takes a tree or branch to fall down for the power to go out, or if your premises has ageing electrical infrastructure.

Typically this will involve the use of an uninterruptable power supply which effectively is a battery bank for your computer device, giving it a bit of time to properly shut down if the power fails. These are separate devices that you have to buy and plug your NAS into and most of them have the ability to signal to the NAS to appropriately write back the data and properly shut down when the power is out.

But Thecus has solved this problem with the N5810PRO which is a 5-bay small-business NAS that has an integrated uninterruptable power supply. This battery bank provides enough power to cause the NAS to write back all of data to its five disks and properly shut down, but you don’t have to have a separate device to achieve this.

It also has the other expectations of a small-business desktop NAS such as server functionality for a wide variety of tasks alongside even a server-side implementation of McAfee’s anti-virus software. As well, there are the 5 Ethernet ports which allow for serving 5 different physical networks or providing a “fat-pipe” from a suitably-equipped switch. Oh yeah, it also supports SMB/CIFS, DLNA, iTunes for the file transfer and can run multiple RAID volumes across the five disks.

But could I see the integration of a battery backup / UPS function in a NAS become a product differentiator? This could be more so with “small-business” models and the battery capacity could be a product differentiator in itself especially if the goal is to provide long-run failsafe operation.

Network-Attached Storage with Built-in Battery Backup

 Thecus NAS server ( Network attached storage ) | Unbeatable Protection with Thecus® Battery Backup Module

Product Page

My Comments

Most of us who run a network-attached storage device will realise that these devices will need to have constant power supply in order to keep the data safe. The common solution that we would take would be to connect the NAS’s AC power supply through an uninterruptible power supply. These devices have a built-in battery to provide enough power to allow for an orderly shutdown of the device or allow the device to run longer through a short outage.

Now Thecus have taken a cue from a common security-system design practice. This is where an alarm system has an integrated battery that is maintained by the system’s power supply. It is so that the alarm system can continue to protect the premises if there is a power outage.

They have extended this concept by providing an optional battery-backup module for the N4200 “muscle-NAS” unit as an alternative to a UPS setup, with the battery allowing enough power for an orderly shutdown or completion of firmware installation. This can also cater for power outages including situations where the device may be accidentally unplugged and may be enough for most home and small-business environments.  If the NAS is used with an UPS, it could allow a larger safety margin for the data through the provision of “dual-layered” battery backup arrangement.

The concept may be worth it for equipment that is used in the home or by small businesses and would be a must for places where the power supply is likely to be unreliable. It also is another example where the manufacturers are racing to build the best example of a top-end network-attached storage device for the home or small business in a similar way to what Ford, GM and Chrysler were doing in the late 60s and early 70s with the “muscle cars”.

SmallNetBuilder – Thecus Adds Dual-Bay Hot-Swap Mini 2.5" SATA NAS

SmallNetBuilder – Small Network Help – Thecus Adds Dual-Bay Hot-Swap Mini 2.5" SATA NAS

My comments on this “midget” NAS

The 2.5” laptop hard disk as part of a highly-portable dual-drive network-attached storage has matured as a form factor with Thecus competing with Buffalo Technology in this product class.

The reason that these network-attached storage devices, which would be nearly the same size as a regular single-drive unit that works with a 3.5” hard disk is that they can offer what the what the regular single 3.5” hard disk units offer but with more advantages like reduced power consumption and operating noise as well as the advantages of being able to work as a RAID device.

The Thecus NAS has improved on the Buffalo design by offering BitTorrent support and the ability to work with a USB webcam as a time-lapse video recorder / network camera server as well as the usual file storage and DLNA media-server functionality.

As more companies sell these small dual-disk NAS boxes that use laptop hard disks, this could open the floodgates for network data storage applications where size or reduced power and operating-noise matters. It doesn’t matter whether you are dealing with

Point of innovation

An opportunity for innovation that can exist with this class of NAS devices is for them to work on an automotive or marine power supply environment. This is a power supply which runs nominally at 12 or 24 volts DC but would typically have varying-voltage conditions due to situations encountered in these situations like whenever the engine is started. These units would also need to shut down if the power is below a critical level for vehicle use so the engine can be started. As well, it may be desirable to support “ignition sense” so the unit can go in to different operating modes depending on what position the vehicle’s ignition switch was set to.

If this is achieved, these NAS devices could provide data storage to an in-vehicle LAN (which may have a wireless wide-area-network router at the edge) in a cost-effective manner. It could then lead to DLNA-based media handling on the road and improved network-based local data storage for “office-on-wheels” applications. With the Thecus NAS mentioned in the article having USB webcam support, it could allow for the use of a cost-effective USB webcam-based “black box” video-surveillance system for mobile applications like, for example, buses operated by community organisations and schools; or delivery vehicles.

At least there are signs of progress towards the small-form-factor NAS boxes becoming a reality and increasing the application space for these devices.