LaCie announces the availability of NAS OS 3.1, offering 25 percent speed improvements, hybrid cloud services, and more professional features for its existing NAS servers. July 11, 2013 3:00 AM PDT NAS OS 3.1 offers a new set of hardware-monitoring tools for the supported LaCie NAS servers. (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET) LaCie's excellent 5big NAS Pro has just gotten a big improvement. The storage vendor released the latest NAS OS 3.1 today, adding speed and more features to its flagship NAS server. The new version of the firmware promises to increase the performance speed up to 25 percent in RAID 5. I tried out the new firmware and found that the performance was indeed improved noticeably. In tests with just one Gigabit connection (the server comes with two network ports), in a SimplyRAID setup, which is similar to RAID 5 in this case, the server now offered 108MBps for writing and 109MBps for reading. For comparison, the NAS OS 3.0 firmware offered 83MBps and 105MBps in writing and reading, respectively. In addition, NAS OS 3.1 now also offers a hybrid cloud feature that lets users sync data between a computer, the cloud, and the NAS server. There's also a new set of management tools. These tools include a hardware-monitoring function that alerts the admin in real time of potential issues with the fan, CPU, or RAM, and SMART hard disk diagnostic that tests and hardware status. Although this is a welcome improvement to its server, compared with others -- such as those from Synology, Asus, and QNAP -- the 5big NAS Pro is still very far behind in terms of features. NAS OS 3.1 is available now for the 5big NAS Pro and can be upgraded via the server's Web interface, from the "Support" widget. The upgrade process took a few minutes in my case. In August, NAS OS 3.1 will also be available for the 2big NAS. LaCie's 5big NAS Pro has a lot to offer
LaCie announces the availability of NAS OS 3.1, offering 25 percent speed improvements, hybrid cloud services, and more professional features for its existing NAS servers.
NAS OS 3.1 offers a new set of hardware-monitoring tools for the supported LaCie NAS servers.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)
LaCie's excellent 5big NAS Pro has just gotten a big improvement.
The storage vendor released the latest NAS OS 3.1 today, adding speed and more features to its flagship NAS server. The new version of the firmware promises to increase the performance speed up to 25 percent in RAID 5.
I tried out the new firmware and found that the performance was indeed improved noticeably. In tests with just one Gigabit connection (the server comes with two network ports), in a SimplyRAID setup, which is similar to RAID 5 in this case, the server now offered 108MBps for writing and 109MBps for reading. For comparison, the NAS OS 3.0 firmware offered 83MBps and 105MBps in writing and reading, respectively.
In addition, NAS OS 3.1 now also offers a hybrid cloud feature that lets users sync data between a computer, the cloud, and the NAS server. There's also a new set of management tools. These tools include a hardware-monitoring function that alerts the admin in real time of potential issues with the fan, CPU, or RAM, and SMART hard disk diagnostic that tests and hardware status.
Although this is a welcome improvement to its server, compared with others -- such as those from Synology, Asus, and QNAP -- the 5big NAS Pro is still very far behind in terms of features.
NAS OS 3.1 is available now for the 5big NAS Pro and can be upgraded via the server's Web interface, from the "Support" widget. The upgrade process took a few minutes in my case. In August, NAS OS 3.1 will also be available for the 2big NAS.
LaCie's 5big NAS Pro has a lot to offer
