Have you been reviewing white box storage in search of a NAS alternative for your home office, small business, or personal storage needs?
We know it’s not an easy choice because there are a lot of brands and models to choose from that all seem to have the same features…
Look at the bright side – with so many storage alternatives available, the best part is you no longer need to pay a premium to get high performance at the lowest price per gigabyte.
White Box Storage Solutions 
Nowadays, nearly every disk manufacturer offers a small NAS that can be used for backing up, streaming media, virtualization, and handling data storage.
Gone are the days of keeping all your files on your desktop system drive, only to have to copy all the files to each new computer you buy.
Do you remember that before SSD storage was around, it would have taken hours to copy a 1TB SATA drive over a wireless network?
Or, if you were techie enough, you would chain the old drive to the ribbon cable of the new system or plug it directly into the motherboard.
But now, with external storage or NAS, you can store or transfer all your important files to removable storage that you access via a USB port, your internal network, or over the Internet. How nice is that, right?
Recommend reading…
- Best Home NAS Solution (Perfect for storing all your home office files, data, and backups)
- Best NAS Drive for Media Streaming (Great for storing your media files locally while you do editing)
- Best QNAP for Virtualization (The alternative storage solution for small business infrastructure)
- Best NAS for Home Backup (Easy to set up for backing up your desktop or laptop)
- Best Wireless NAS (Personal portable external hard drive with WIFI/USB connectivity)
- Best Wireless Hard Drive for MAC (The simple alternative to USB thumb drives)
Low-Cost Storage Options 
Heck, for much less than a new cellphone, you can buy a white box storage solution such as a QNAP or Synology NAS that has redundant drives and SSD cache and works with Windows, Linux, and MAC.
Once upon a time, these storage features were only available on big brands like NetApp, not any more…
Today, if you’re a small business owner and need storage for your business, it’s as easy as 1-2-3:
- Selecting a NAS device from a list that has enough drive bays for your capacity needs.
- Then, choose from various HDD or SSD drives depending on your performance requirements.
- Finally, follow a setup wizard to get everything working, such as backup, file shares, and network access.
Sure, it takes some technical know-how, but a few years ago, you would have to hire an expensive storage engineer to handle this job for you.
But that’s not all…
The same simple 1-2-3 setup also works for small NAS units for your home…
White Box Storage FAQ
Who buys white box storage? A lot of home office and small business owners. Plus, IT managers are finding ways to save precious budget dollars by building their own storage solutions out of low-cost commodity resources.
If I’m running my business out of a home office or I’m a small brick-and-mortar business, then what does white box storage do for me? Easy, it gives you time to grow. Basically allowing you to spend more budget dollars where you really need them, and not on expense storage solutions.
When a home office or small business owner looks at storage options, their main concerns are price, performance, reliability, and availability. With white box storage, you can get all of these benefits and more.
Is white box storage for everyone? No. Some people will only buy name-brand storage units from Dell, HP, and NetApp, which is fine. But if you can’t afford these options, then getting your business off the ground with a low-cost Synology or QNAP unit will work fine.
Can anyone set up a white box storage solution? No. If you have a hard time changing a printer cartridge, then you’ll likely be challenged with setting up a Netgear ReadyNAS. But that’s OK because many of the items listed will also provide a link for installation.
Why do I need a home office or small business NAS? If you’re always running out of disk space for your media files or you have multiple people sharing documents, then a NAS is an easy solution that will give you more storage capacity and flexibility as your business grows.
Can all these benefits really be true?
Look, we know as long as you’re doing data backups and while you’re not a big shop with enterprise requirements, then a white box storage alternative is the best home office, small business, or personal storage solution for you. That said, you’re welcome to research Dell’s small business storage options, too.
Please feel free to share your comments and questions with us.
Thanks,