Sometimes a full Windows server with applications support, email, and advanced Web services is way more than what your small company requires. If all you need is centralized file storage, then the 24-terabyte Western Digital My Cloud DL4100 ($1,529.99) is what you want. This business-oriented network-attached storage (NAS) drive array connects to your wireless router for instant file service and backup. Its four RAID-protected drives keep your data safe and easily accessible in the office, and it can connect to cloud services or another DL4100( at Amazon) in a home office for even more protection. We like its simplicity and ease of deployment so much, it earns our Editors' Choice nod for business-oriented NAS.
Design and Features
The drive is a basic black and measures 7.75 by 6.75 by 9.25 inches (HWD). The four hot-swappable drive bays are accessible from the front of the box. The four Western Digital RED NAS drive mechanisms are preinstalled, but are easily replaceable since they aren't bolted to drive sleds, like they are on the QNAP TVS-463 (stay tuned for our upcoming review). You can easily open and close the sleds' latches with one hand, but it doesn't have key-secured locks. In contrast, you'll still need to buy individual drive mechanisms for the "diskless" Synology DiskStation DS1813+($1,080.19 at Staples), another top pick, though its eight-bay chassis has potentially more space.
The four installed drives are pre-configured for RAID 5, which will protect all of your data in case any one of the drives fails. If that happens, the front LCD panel will let you know that you have to replace the defective drive. You can pop the defective drive out, and swap in a fresh WD RED NAS drive mechanism. The DL4100 will rebuild the RAID array, and you'll be golden.
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The overall free storage is about 18TB instead of the 24TB you'd get with a RAID 0 setup, but the 6GB of storage is set aside by the drive array in RAID 5 to keep your business data accessible in case of drive failure.
The back of the driver has a pair of Gigabit Ethernet adapters, a USB 2.0 port, and a USB 3.0 port. There are also two AC adapter plugs, in case you want to attach an optional extra power supply for redundancy. There is a front-mounted USB 3.0 port with a one-touch copy button, which will grab all the data off a connected drive and back it up to the shared storage. This is a quick way to back up portable external drives you use when you travel for work.
The DL4100 supports many business-related networking protocols, including iSCSI, Microsoft Active Directory, Distributed File System (DFS), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and iPv6. If you're simply using the DL4100 to add file storage to your four-port, business-class wireless router, you can manage the NAS device from an internal Web server with monitoring information condensed simply on a dashboard-like screen. The dashboard gives you a running total of available space, network utilization, and the status of the CPU and RAM use. You can also set up account and password protection to shared folders on the drive, and monitor other factors, like disk temperature and health.
Once hooked up, you can map shared drives easily on Macs and Windows PCs. The server can also act as a backup repository for your PCs (through the WD Smartware Pro client) or Macs (via Time Machine). The DL4100 has its own FTP server, and you can use the NAS to download files from websites, or from peer-to-peer networks using programs like aMule and Transmission. You can also turn on DLNA and iTunes service, so you can stream music to networked speakers in your reception room or to the iPad on your desk.
You can back up the NAS by putting another DL4100 in your home and set up an automatic backup of the files over the Internet or a VPN. You can also back up to your Amazon S3 cloud storage (if you already have an account), or use ElephantDrive via a special deal for DL4100 users (1,000GB for $9.95 per month or 2,000GB for $39.95). Cloud-storage backup of a RAID 5 backup drive seems somewhat redundant, but you can't be too careful if your information is pivotal to your business.
Performance
To test throughput, we copied a 4.9GB test folder containing thousands of text, music, photo, Office, and video files from our Toshiba Tecra Z50-A1503 testbed via an Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router($169.99 at Amazon) We tested both with gigabit Ethernet and wirelessly from a short distance using 5GHz 802.11ac. The DL4100 was able to write our test folder at 69MBps and read it at 82MBps through Ethernet and a much slower 10MBps write and 13MBps read over Wi-Fi. That's not too bad, although the QNAP TVS-463 was measurably faster at 79MBps write and 86MBps read over Ethernet and 21MBps write and 23MBps read over Wi-Fi in our tests.
The Western Digital My Cloud DL4100 is easy to set up and deploy for a robust 18TB of protected storage for your small business. It moves data quickly over a wired network, though things will slow down a bit on Wi-Fi. The ease of use and the drive array's redundant features can give your business a leg up if disaster strikes, whether it's a relatively minor drive failure or a major glitch like a fire. As a truly turnkey NAS that you simply have to plug in and turn on, the My Cloud DL4100 comes highly recommended and is our Editors' Choice NAS for SMB.
The 24-terabyte Western Digital My Cloud DL4100 network-attached storage (NAS) drive array is an elegant turnkey solution if you need lots of simple, redundant file storage for your business.
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