Everlasting Memories

To cut the matter short, I want a way of ensuring that all the memorable moments captured in photos and videos last as long as possible. In my mind I have settled the issue with the use of a NAS or Network Attached Storage formatted with RAID 5 for redunancy in case one or more drives fail.

The problem was that my old Buffalo 5TB NAS is over 90% full and so I went in search for another. Looking back to the time when I first acquired the Buffalo NAS over 7 years ago, I would not have anticipated my acquisition of the Sony 42MP A7RII and subsequently the A7RIII, shooting in RAW and JPEG formats.

So I was off in search for a new NAS and settled for the Synology 1517+ fully loaded with 6TB HGST RAID 3.5" disk drives and formatted with RAID 5 to give me a usable storage capacity of around 20TB.  I reckon that should keep me happy for another decade or so.
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So what made me decide on the Synology 1517+? Well, a few factors, and just to list them:

1. The Company. Synology is the foremost manufacturer of NAS, so I reckon they will be around for a while.
2. The Software. Acknowledged by all to have the most friendly and usable software, I managed to set up the whole system in a night. The next morning, I was well on my way to installing apps on my Android phone to access the files photos (DS Photo as well as the new Moments).  But more about that in my Tech Talk section.
3. The Hardware. Endowed with a fast 2.4GB Dual Core Intel CPU, the system should last me for a good number of years. Plus the fact that there are upgrade paths should I need to expand to a mind-boggling 15-bay system by adding another two 5-bay enclosures. Drives will get cheaper over the years but the basic enclosures will not.