Re: Biz math
AC - My set up is almost same as yours - Time Machine/AR Sync to multiple USB drives/ NAS for DVDs and duplication (not backup) of some important stuff. My lessons learned...
Not all NAS play nicely with Mac OS - I've got an old Buffalo which is a pain. They blame Apple, Apple don't care (Apple changed secure file access protocols in a rev. of MacOS). Net result is that Finder doesn't play nicely with my Buffalo NAS; e.g. it won't connect to password protected shares. There are ways round it - but it's a pain. I think Buffalo might have fixed this in their newer products, but their attitude when this became a problem for the model I had was that they were not going to fix it because it was not their problem - I'd only had the NAS a month and I was pissed off. I don't care who was right - QNAP pushed a FW fix almost immediately and Buffalo have been on my Do-Not-Buy list since then.
My other NAS (QNAP - old 4 bay) was initially set up as a time machine and worked fine. But all too frequently I got the "Your backup is corrupt and needs to start again". I don't know whose fault this is but I gave up using the NAS as a time machine and bought an Apple one because running a full backup every few weeks was not practical.
Obvious, but buy the fastest NAS you can afford in terms of read/write performance. Even then you'll get fed up of waiting for stuff to copy.
If you want to run your own server online then check what the software and support for dynamic DNS is like. I've never done it and have no desire to do it, mainly because I'm scared of opening my network to the world and don't understand enough about it to be sure I'm secure.
I don't use it for media streaming, surveillance, familiy sharing stuff. It's really just a big drive in the spare bedroom where I keep DVDs.
QNAP? I'm not affiliated. They're OK. Lot's of configuration/set up options. Help is mostly via forum, although there is some limited direct tech support I think (never used it). I've had mine about ten years. PSU died a couple of years ago but I bought one online easily enough. It's not noisy. It is bloody slow - but I didn't spec speed when I bought it. QNAP are still pushing firmware updates even though it's on their not-supported list. If you want to use it for surveillance then check camera licences - mine only comes with two free and then I have to pay for additional camera feeds (!). I'd probably buy another.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
