EXPERT RESPONSE
I believe that purchasing a vendor offering of a network-attached storage (NAS) product has advantages over rolling your own file server. It should be simpler to administer and have less risk of instability from some additional software being deployed on it. In addition, you get the support from the vendor as a NAS system rather than having to support the file serving application on a standard server yourself. It's a much better bet and much less risk (and probably cheaper in the long run) than doing your own.
The argument holds true whether you're using some Unix-type OS or W2K. WSS2003 is offered as an underlying system for NAS devices from several vendors. Other vendors may use a custom embedded OS or some standard variation of an OS for their NAS.
Look at the NAS system as a complete storage system with characteristics of performance, reliability, support, price and function. If you base it on some specific details, that may distract you from considering the system as a complete product.
Do you know…
Your NAS backup options?
The top NAS products on the market?
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