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For a small business that needs reliable backups, remote access, RAID, and media storage, I would look at a 4-bay NAS rather than a 2-bay model. A strong all-round option is the QNAP TS-464.

The TS-464 gives you four drive bays, so you can use RAID 5 for a good balance between usable capacity and drive-failure protection. It also has two 2.5GbE ports, which can make a noticeable difference when several computers are accessing large files simultaneously. QNAP supports PC/Mac backups, Time Machine, NAS-to-NAS backup, cloud backup, snapshots, and remote-access VPN features.

For a business environment, I particularly like having four drives because you have more flexibility as the company grows. You could start with four 8TB drives, for example, and have roughly 24TB of raw usable capacity in RAID 5 before filesystem overhead.

What I would configure

  • NAS: QNAP TS-464
  • Drives: 4 × NAS-rated HDDs
  • RAID: RAID 5 for capacity, or RAID 6 if protecting against two simultaneous drive failures is more important
  • Network: 2.5GbE if your switches and computers support it
  • Backups: automated PC/Mac backups + NAS snapshots
  • Off-site backup: cloud or a second NAS at another location
  • Media: dedicated shared folders for photos, videos and other large files
  • Remote access: VPN rather than exposing unnecessary NAS services directly to the internet

One important point from years of dealing with storage systems: RAID is not a backup. RAID helps keep the NAS running when a drive fails, but it won't protect you from accidental deletion, ransomware, theft, fire, or a serious NAS failure. A small business should ideally have the NAS plus an independent off-site copy.

If your priority is simplicity and an easier management experience, I'd also compare it with a Synology 4-bay NAS before buying. The right choice ultimately depends on your number of employees, storage requirement, and budget.

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