Network Attached Storage - Under the hood

A Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a type of storage space system that may be linked to a data network. A NAS is useful for storage relevant to non mission-critical data. It is less costly and simpler to maintain compared to a Storage Area Network (SAN) but does not quite deliver the performance a powerful organization can acquire from a SAN.

But their success was relatively short-lived in the marketplace - DVD players were introduced in 1997 - and the sales of DVD�s had overtaken the VHS market by 2003 - a mere six years by comparison. So what�s the attraction? DVD�s have noticeably sharper picture quality and superior sound quality - not to mention the fact that VHS tapes can - and do - deteriorate over time and can get shredded in your VCR heads.HD-DVD was developed by Toshiba and NEC and has the support of the DVD Forum, along with a number of Hollywood studios. Currently those studios which have announced support for HD-DVD are; Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, Warner Bros., and New Line Cinema. It has a capacity of 15GB for single-sided discs and 30Gb for double-sided. It doesn�t need a caddy or cartridge and the cover layer is the same thickness as current DVD discs, 0.6mm. The numerical aperture of the optical pick-up head is also the same as DVD, 0.65mm.Because of its similarities to current DVD, high definition DVD is cheaper to manufacture than Blu-ray, because it doesn�t need big changes in the production line set-up. Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have backward compatibility with existing DVDV discs. That is that current DVDs will play in HD-DVD player, although new high definition DVD won�t play in older DVD players.High definition DVD currently supports a number of compression formats, including MPEG-2, VC1 (based on Microsoft�s Windows Media 9), and H.264 which is based on MPEG-4 and will be supported by the next version of Apple�s QuickTime software, which will be included with Mac OS X Tiger.3.Straightforward to set up, are usually installed and operating in under half an hour.It�s no surprise that we all want to keep up with the latest gadgets and technology, but the growth of the DVD market has been truly amazing. During the 1980�s and 1990�s, VHS tapes had a clear superiority in the marketplace, but it still took about fifteen years - from their introduction in 1976 - to achieve that top spot in the market. By 1991 three out of four homes in the U.S. would own a VCR.The other side of this argument is HD-DVD technology - backed by Microsoft and Intel - which are some pretty formidable opponents. The differences stem in large part due to what technology will be available when - the HD-DVD people say the storage capacity of the Blu Ray discs aren�t anywhere close to a release date - the Blu Ray people say that�s hogwash.

When purchasing a NAS solution keep security in mind and check out vendors that include native encryption using the system.

Author: Mark Hamilton