How Network-Attached Storage Can Cut Costs and Protect Your Data

The global network-attached storage (NAS) is projected to grow at a 20.3 percent CAGR over the next seven years. But, before we look at the drivers behind that growth, here’s a quick definition: A NAS system is a type of file-level storage that connects to your network so authorized users can access data and share files from a dedicated central location across a heterogeneous client and server environment.

That’s a significant benefit in today’s hybrid work environments, where ease of remote access and network performance matter more than ever. But there are plenty of other benefits to NAS. Here are just a few:

Scale-Out Storage That Grows With You

NAS devices make it easier for you to add more storage to the system as you need it. Arcserve OneXafe is built on a scale-out architecture that lets you seamlessly add one drive at a time or multiple nodes in a cluster. That makes it perfect for unstructured data and backup targets, giving you an affordable option because you don’t need to waste money on storage you don’t need, as is the case with inflexible scale-up storage architectures.

Cuts Operational and Storage Costs

Combining the advantages of a distributed, immutable-object store with the accessibility of SMB and NFS protocols, OneXafe’s unified architecture makes storage management easy. That reduces IT time spent on storage, also cutting your operational costs. OneXafe goes one step further in keeping your storage costs in line by offering enterprise features like global inline deduplication and compression.

Encryption and Immutability: Ransomware, Data Protection, and Recovery

Keeping your data safe is crucial, given that the cost of a data breach was over $4.5 million in 2021.  To help you avoid those costs, OneXafe enables continuous data protection (CDP) and encryption for your data at rest.

Arcserve also strongly recommends that you adopt the 3-2-1-1 ransomware protection update to the old 3-2-1 backup rule. This new approach says to keep three copies of your data (one primary and two backups); store two copies locally on two formats (NAS, tape, or a local drive); and keep one copy offsite in the cloud or secure storage like OneXafe, for example.

The extra “1” in 3-2-1-1 is probably the most essential feature in terms of your ability to recover from a ransomware attack or other data disaster. It stands for immutable storage. OneXafe uses an immutable object store, with every object written only once and never modified. Any changes you make to the file system always result in the creation of new objects, with OneXafe CDP taking low-overhead snapshots—a view of the file system at the instant it is taken—every 90 seconds.

Because underlying objects are immutable and can’t be changed, the snapshots are also immutable, so an external source can’t alter them. These snapshots let you roll back to a specific point in time and recover entire file systems in minutes.  

NAS Use Cases

OneXafe offers you a cost-effective option for various uses within your infrastructure. For file server consolidation, OneXafe is highly scalable and available and makes it easy to manage the storage of your unstructured data while adding a new level of resilience to your organization. Because it can scale capacity granularly, OneXafe helps you cost-effectively manage the ever-growing amount of data your organization generates.

Finally, OneXafe is the perfect disk-based target for both virtualized and physical server environments. That gives you the scalability you need for your backup data with almost effortless storage management. And don’t forget about OneXafe’s other cost controls like inline and variable-length deduplication and compression technologies.

Get the NAS You Need

Get the details and learn how Arcserve OneXafe can help protect your data and reduce your data storage costs by watching an on-demand demo. Or choose an Arcserve technology partner for expert answers to your storage and security questions.