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the TS-559 Pro II.

QNap's MyCloudNAS provide a useful range of services to remote users over the Internet.

There's also QNap's NetBak Replicator software for running scheduled backups of Windows workstations and servers. The appliance also supports Rsync services for remote replication. As expected, extra features are in abundance and, along with MySQL, the appliance can host your own web sites and use the Surveillance Station to monitor and record footage from up to four IP cameras.

New features are RADIUS and TFTP servers, onboard anti-virus scanning and iSCSI LUN backup to a remote storage location over CIFS or NFS. It even has a built in Syslog server where it can receive and store log messages from Syslog senders.

Prices for this appliance vary considerably so we advise shopping around for the best deal. After some searching we found a diskless model at LambdaTek for 1,396 ex VAT which includes a three-year warranty.

We were impressed with the TS-879 Pro on a number of counts and it throws down a very big gauntlet to the competition. Performance over Gigabit and 10-Gigabit networks is impeccable and it provides a remarkable range of storage features which includes some very useful IP SAN options and cloud services for remote workers.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The TS-879 Pro delivers a range of storage features that the competition will be hard pressed to match let alone beat. These include free cloud services and some quality IP SAN capabilities, plus it’s impressively fast over both Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet networks. The only thing missing is the ability to add expansion units, but its maximum capacity of 24TB using the latest SATA3 hard disks should be quite sufficient for most SMBs.

Chassis: Desktop CPU: 3.3GHz Intel Core i3-2120 Memory: 2GB DDR3, 512MB DOM Storage: 8 x hot-swap 3.5in/2.5in SATA 2/3 disks bays Array support: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 5 + hotspare Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Other ports: 2 x USB3, 4 x USB2, 2 x eSATA Expansion: PCI Express slot Management: Web browser Software: QNap Finder, NetBak Replicator and Qget software

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.

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