[mdlug] NAS Recommendations

[Robert Adkins II]

> Umm, so this raises the question: how do you measure storage 
> performance and reliability?  Are there statistics available?
> 

	That would be difficult, because each network is different. Most all
vendors want their product to look the absolute best, so they will often
tweak code and configuration of elements in their "test" environment to
generate the best results. It's why they never like to see "real world"
tests performed and then have all sorts of problems with the results being
published and then they try and disparage poor results.

	How I measure performance and realiability is by reading through as
many reviews as possible on a given device. If many of the reviews start
talking about the unit worked fine for 6 months and now locks up every
couple of days/hours/minutes with no rhyme or reason. To me, that starts
becoming very telling.

	Yes, I am aware that vendors have paid shills out there putting up
reviews of their products, but are they also going out there and paying
shills to bad mouth their competitor's products? Probably not, because that
becomes legally dangerous. So, if a product has a pile of negative reviews,
I would assume that it is safe to take those as being fairly truthful.

	-Rob