Four bays in the WD ShareSpace provide up to 4TB of storage and multiple RAID configurations.

If you've been trying to come up with a good way for everyone in your studio to be able to back up photos to the same storage device you might have encountered the term NAS already. No, NAS is not just a legendary rapper from Queens— that's Nas you're thinking of. It's an acronym for Network Attached Storage.

A NAS system is typically a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) which connects to your home or studio network via Ethernet so multiple users can get to it without leaving their desks. In contrast, Direct Attached Storage (DAS) devices such as external hard drives connect directly to a single computer by USB or Firewire. With a NAS up and running on your network, gone are the days of photo assistants hogging up the studio's main workstation while they archive images from memory cards or USB drives.

Until recently, NAS systems have been unusually expensive and often frustratingly difficult to set up. They also haven't been particularly Mac-friendly which has turned off some photographers, many of whom work in a Mac computing environment.

That's gradually changing, however, mostly because of demand. As consumers acquire more and more video, music and image files, the appeal of having a central hub that everyone in the family can easily access without crowding around one computer is growing. Welcome to the age of the Home Network.

Photographers are reaping the benefits because along with being great for home networking, these lower priced NAS systems are perfect for running a small business such as a photo studio. And they're getting more Mac friendly as well.


SHARED SPACE

One of the easiest NAS systems I've tried out recently comes from Western Digital, a company with a long history in storage. Called the WD ShareSpace, this NAS is a four-bay system capable of fitting up to 4 tb of hard disk storage.

I tried out the 4-tb version which, while it isn't exactly cheap ($999), offers the ideal amount of storage for photographers wanting to redundantly back up tons of RAW image files in a RAID 5 mirrored back-up configuration. There's also a 2TB version for $699.

The WD ShareSpace doesn't look as fancy as, say, Data Robotics' blinking Drobo system; nor does it have the stylish, slim profile of Maxtor's NAS products. What it does having going for it is simplicity and a relatively small footprint (8 x 7.5-inches) which fit snuggly next to my Sony Playstation 3. The beige metal colored ShareSpace actually reminds me a lot of a miniature bank vault and its flat top provided a good resting place for my Linksys wireless router.

Set-up is a thankfully painless process and is actually easier for Mac users than PC users which was a welcome surprise. After unpacking the ShareSpace—which came loaded with the four 1 tb hard drives set to RAID 5—I connected the unit to the Linksys router via an included Ethernet cable. Next I plugged the ShareSpace in and the unit powered on for about three minutes. This only happens the first time it's powered on. After that, the start up process is only about 30 seconds.

The remarkable thing about the set-up for Mac users is that it doesn't require you to load any additional software onto your computer. (For PC users there's a program you need to install from a CD.)

Instead, you can just use Apple's built-in Bonjour network configuration software. Just click the bookmark button in Apple's Safari browser and you'll find the WDShareSpace link right under Bonjour. After logging on, connect to the device via the Finder and you'll see the Shared Drive icon on the desktop.

Transferring images to the ShareSpace is as simple as dragging and dropping them into the appropriate folders in the drive icon. To set the rest of your studio up with access, just give them the password and they can log on in the same way.

Transfer rates via Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) are comparable to what you'll get from USB 2.0 or Firewire 400 but slower than Firewire 800. Using a wired GigE connection, I clocked transfer speeds to the ShareSpace at about 30-40 mb/s. It should be noted, however, that that's for a wired connection. Wireless transfer rates will vary depending on what kind of a system you have in your studio.

With the Linksys Wireless-N Broadband Router I was using for my home network, transfer rates dropped to about 15 mb/s which was a bit slow for all the huge Nikon D3X RAW files I had just shot.

If you're out shooting on location, you can also back up remotely to the ShareSpace via the supplied MioNet Web access software but that program is, unfortunately PC only at this point. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

On the plus side, the ShareSpace also has a built-in FTP server and an iTunes server if you want to use the device as a virtual jukebox.


THE BOTTOM LINE

NAS storage devices once were big, nasty devices that cost an arm and a leg and were impossible to set up. With the growing interest in home networking, however, network attached storage has come a long way. To see how far, photographers should serious consider the WD ShareSpace which will allow everyone in your studio to easily back up images and store data.

WD ShareSpace

www.westerndigital.com Pros: Small footprint; easy to set up especially for Mac users; runs quietly Cons: Kind of pricey; remote back-up software is not Mac compatible Pricing: $999 (4 tb): $699 (2 tb)