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Benefits

NAS has benefits in terms of cost-effectiveness, security, usability, reliability, compatibility, and performance.

Cost-effectiveness

  • A Network Attached Storage can be mounted on multiple compute nodes at a time and allows simultaneous access from these nodes. This reduces the costs of performing a large number of copy and synchronization operations.
  • The performance of a Network Attached Storage increases with storage capacity. This eliminates the need for an upfront investment in high-end file storage devices and reduces hardware costs.
  • NAS allows you to pay only for the storage space that you consume without the need to configure storage in advance. No minimum consumption or extra configuration cost exists. For more information, see Pricing.
  • NAS features high availability, which allows you to greatly reduce data security risks and maintenance costs.

Ease of use

  • You can create a file system in a few clicks without the need to deploy the file system or perform O&M operations.

Security

  • NAS provides access control based on Resource Access Management (RAM), and access isolation based on virtual private clouds (VPCs). NAS supports encryption in transit and encryption at rest to prevent data interception and tampering.

High reliability

  • NAS stores multiple replicas of data on different devices in the same zone and provides high data durability. This minimizes data security risks.

High performance

  • NAS provides distributed file systems whose performance linearly scales with capacity. Compared with traditional data storage solutions, NAS provides a higher level of storage performance.

Compatibility

  • NAS supports standard protocols, such as Network File System (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB). NAS ensures data consistency and file locking based on POSIX APIs.
    After the content of a file is modified in a Network Attached Storage, you can view the result in real-time.