NAS stands for network-attached storage. Sounds complicated and technical and only for hardcore technology fundi’s right? Wrong. NAS happens to be a clever, easy and brilliant way to build a home server that allows you to change the way you handle all your photos, videos, backups, streaming and sharing of data.

Anyone can do it. And here are five reasons why you want to do it…

1. Open up a digital multimedia library

Instead of thinking of NAS as a technical solution, look at it instead as a digital library. With a NAS, you can centrally store and access every document, photo, music, and video no matter where you are. When it comes to management, Synology NAS comes with intuitive tools that keeps your files organized safely shareable over the Internet. You can even stream music and videos with multimedia applications on a NAS. 

Like anyone else, you probably have piles of DSLR photos in heaps of external drives and nowhere to organise them or locate them easily.  Synology’s NAS comes with two software packages that help you manage and backup your photos. The Photo Station lets you build a portfolio really easily, including sharing photos, creating a blog, displaying your work on specific devices (such as Apple TV) and even a mobile app. Moments is the other tool and this introduces artificial intelligence deep learning technology to your storage device. Moments was built specifically for backing up and managing your mobile photographs and displays them in your timeline, allows you to look back on memories and automatically groups them according to people, subject and location.

2. Protect from data loss

NAS also introduces something else that has become important for the home user – centralised backup. If you lose your phone, if your external drive is stolen or your computer crashes, the worst-case scenario will begin and end with the loss of the digital asset stored on it. Backup for PC data can be customised to do automatic backups, and if you make it a habit to back up all devices, then every whisper of data, every precious photograph and every video will be securely tucked away on your home system.

3. Build your own private or hybrid cloud

So, you probably think that having a hybrid cloud is something only businesses do. Again, wrong. Not with NAS. You can easily and securely access your NAS over the Internet without having to set up port forwarding or a firewall. You can even sync your public clouds such as Google Drive or Dropbox to your NAS and transfer between them. It’s basically the key that unlocks all the cloud doors.

4. Set up home surveillance

The Synology NAS has an add-on package called Surveillance Station. It’s a centralised management system for your surveillance footage that supports more than 6,000 IP camera models on the market. You pick your camera, find them in the local network using Surveillance Station and then you can watch live views and receive notifications on the mobile app. You can store and archive surveillance footage, set up different security levels and so much more. It adds a much-needed layer to home security.

5. Enjoy everything on demand

Finally, for the family that likes their technology to multitask, NAS can be used as a PLEX server, a website host, a Bit Torrent box, a git server, and even a mail server. It can enhance your home security, transform your home communications and keep you entertained, all at the same time.

NAS fits neatly into any home environment and can enhance every aspect of daily life, from family entertainment to home security. It’s fast, it’s secure and it keeps your data private. And the best part? It’s cost-effective for all these various solutions it offers.