31 October 2008

Consumer Network Attached Storage On Up

Consumer Network Attached (NAS) storage is taking off, but it continues to face significant challenges as the market grows, according to a report.

Consumers are realising that network Attached Storage is a very convenient way of backing up their growing libraries of digital media. As well as storage, they have also found it a good way of serving media around the home from a centralized unit a report by ABI Research explained.

The consumer NAS market is not without its challenges, however. Consumers accustomed to the plug-and-play simplicity of USB hard drives or flash drives may be discouraged by the greater complexity of network-based solutions, highlighted ABI’s report. An increased focus on installation and ease-of-use from vendors will be a requirement if they hope to further expand into the consumer market currently dominated by direct-attached storage, the report concluded.