Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/137897
review ioSafe N2 NAS RAID W By Brady Betzel bradybetzel@gmail.com Assistant Editor Bunim-Murray Productions Van Nuys, CA When you want to protect your files from fire, water and more. hen I was growing up, I remember my parents would place our valuables inside a fire and waterproof safe. Inside were family pictures, important documents, and anything else that could not be lost or destroyed by the elements. Now that nearly everyone below the age of 60 has gone over to the digital dark side to manage their lives, where do we keep our data and family documents now? You could create an online back-up of everything, or you could duplicate hard drives and place them in different buildings, or you could even build your own RAID. Most of these solutions are not monetarily feasible since we are mainly modest freelance multimedia artists.The more realistic approach is that you have a couple of 4TB hard drives that you back up to every couple of days at best along with your internal hard drives that we pretend will never stop working. About a year and a half ago I had my first child and suddenly realized, "Oh yeah, I probably should back up our family's important documents, pictures and the baby videos." This is where ioSafe jumped into the picture. Under the hood is a 2.0GHz processor, 512MB DDR3 memory, 1X Gigabit LAN port and the ability to add 2-3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SATA (II) drives up to 4TB per drive if you don't purchase the N2 preloaded. NO KIDDING AROUND! IoSafe is a professional-level Network Attached Storage (NAS) and RAID device with the added protection of data loss from fire, up to 1,550-degrees F for a half hour, as well as underwater up to 10 feet for up to 72 hours with enough storage space to keep my personal and professional life afloat. If you purchase the ioSafe N2 with hard drives, you are given a year of Data Recovery Service Basic for any reason (including spilling soda) with no deductible for the initial recovery and up to $2,500 worth of forensic data recovery if required. For more protection you may purchase longer Basic coverage or the DRS Pro coverage. I really wanted to review this NAS because I am a big fan of my NAS at home. The only problem is that I want it to be protected from fire and water. The N2 went way further than I expected it to. Being a nerd, I use my NAS to constantly upload pictures, movies and important documents so they can be accessed anywhere in my house (or on my network). I also use it in conjunction with my Roku to stream pictures and home movies to my TV.The N2 comes loaded with a media server, a photo station to upload your own photos and host a blog, a directory server providing LDAP service, mail station, iTunes server, a surveillance station to manage your IP-based surveillance (multiple licenses do need to be purchased separately), Time Backup, and even a VPN server. The best part to me is that ioSafe had the wits about them to team up with Synology DSM (DiskStation Manager) for its user interface. As someone who wants things to work immediately and well, the Synology DSM had me up and running within an hour, complete with downloading the PLEX app to run with my Roku. I use this to watch cuts I've edited on any TV connected to any PLEX-enabled device. FOR WORK AND HOME I am mixing this review with the "professional" me and the "at home" me because I often mix the two at home, it passes on both fronts. I connected this to my network but also connected it directly to my Windows 7 HP via the blazing USB 3.0 connection. The N2 is a homerun for anyone who needs to double dip a NAS and RAID for business and pleasure. Another secret I will let you in on is that I purposely placed the N2 in direct eyesight of my one and a half year old son. Once he caught sight of the on button and the blue LEDs, he headed straight for it and turned it on and off multiple times over the past month (maybe 50 times). While that is somewhat of a problem, the N2 had no problem turning itself back on and acting like nothing had happened. 48 Post • June 2013 www.postmagazine.com VITAL STATS PRODUCT: ioSafe N2 NAS/RAID WEBSITE: www.iosafe.com PRICE: Starting price for the diskless version is $599. Beyond that, pricing varies depending on drive capacity. · Fireproof and waterproof NAS/RAID · Powered by the proven Synology DSM platform · Allows for a private cloud accessible from everywhere FINAL THOUGHTS Overall, I think for any business- and homeoffice person like myself who needs to step up to a RAID but also wants it life proof, the ioSafe N2 will exceed your expectations — it even looks sleek. In the first quarter of 2013 there will be an optional floor mount/padlock kit available, which will protect it from any unlawful intruders… or my son. It can be ordered diskless or with up to two 4TB drives and given the Synology Hybrid RAID, Basic, JBOD, RAID-0, or RAID-1. My favorite part is the SD card slot on the front with one-touch downloading of photos or videos from the card. I unloaded over 1,300 pictures in under 20 minutes without having any computers on. The only issue I ran into is the lack of eSATA, FireWire 800 or Thunderbolt connection options. These aren't the worst problems since it is a NAS and it has USB 3.0 connections. There are so many production possibilities with the ability to manage downloads through protocols like Bit Torrent. You can potentially set up client approvals over your own private cloud/Bit Torrent approval server. It's even accessible from the outside on your mobile phone. In the event you don't want anything accessible, instead of trying to disable your cloud access, unplug your ioSafe N2 — no access, period — that's the best option for a private cloud solution with 100 percent security.