QNAP TS-509 Pro NAS

When corporate funds are tight, companies find new ways to reduce operating costs wherever they can. As a network administrator for several small and medium businesses, I'm used to seeing pedestal servers with expensive Windows Server edition Operating Systems running for the sole purpose of serving files out to the workgroup or domain. These environments have made it necessary to look for money-saving opportunities elsewhere in the office environment. A few years back Network Attached Storage server hit the scene with a price tag comparable to the alternative, but the NAS products offered in today's market are far superior and cost much less than before. QNAP offers many affordable NAS server solutions for every department size, and their Turbo Station TS-509 Pro delivers feature-rich functionality to the enterprise environment. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the performance of the 5-drive hot-swappable SATA Gigabit NAS server.

As a product analyst, I know that my job is to test and research products for consumers before they consider them on store shelves. Even though I also own and operate a small business which manages corporate networks, the list of products I get to work with still pales in comparison to the items our sponsors send. So when someone in my position is blown away at the myriad of features and functions embedded into this extremely affordable product, it's worth taking to heart. The unfortunate downside to offering such a myriad of features and functionality is that there's only so much that can be said about it before I lose your interest. In this review of the TS-509 Pro, only the most important features will be discussed.

Powered by Intel Celeron 1.6 GHz CPU, 1GB DDRII memory, the 5-bay, hot-swappable TS-509 Pro delivers superior performance for multiple business applications and intensive concurrent data access. The Linux OS and applications of the TS-509 Pro are embedded in the flash DOM that higher stability is guaranteed. Moreover, the dual Gigabit LAN ports can be configured as Failover, Load balancing, or serving two different subnets which enables more deployment options in a business network environment.

Advanced RAID redundancy with expandability and upgradeability
Advanced RAID configurations, RAID 0/ 1/ 5/ 6/ 5+Spare and JBOD are all supported. With Online RAID Capacity Expansion, users can select to purchase the most cost-effective hard drives for initial server setup and upgrade to larger ones in the future. With Online RAID Level Migration, users can start from one drive firstly and add more to upgrade the RAID level in the future with the data retained.

Easy setup, low-cost maintenance
The handy LCD display on the TS-509 Pro provides a speedy and easy approach for IT administrators to initialize the NAS and set up the RAID configuration without using any computer. The system information and settings are also displayed for easy management. The schedule power on/off feature is available on the TS-509 Pro for IT administrators to flexibly manage the NAS server's up time according to the working hours. Also, the smart Wake on LAN is supported for convenient remote wakeup of the NAS in the local network.

Modern business requires a centralized data center to protect information asset, back up critical data, share the information among workgroups or departments. A solid, efficient, and flexible data backup system is the key to greater business agility and also an increasingly important task for IT administrator. QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS is the new generation all-in-one NAS server for SMB and enterprises. It offers the most reliable and powerful storage solution. With superior performance, versatile server features, best-in-class RAID data protection, and rock-solid hot swappable hard drive design, the TS-509 Pro brings business nowadays a truly new experience of instant data access and sharing, a protected mass storage, value-plus server features at the lowest maintenance cost.

About the company: QNAP Systems, Inc.

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP) is a devoted and dominant provider of Internet Appliance products. With our solid and integrated expertise in the Linux embedded platform, QNAP has released more than 30 models for the network storage and digital network surveillance series over the past 6 years, providing our consumers with high performance and high reliability storage, backup, and surveillance solutions. Today, QNAP continues to lead the industry with our innovation in design and technology.

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