If your specific business needs a massive amount of always-on storage and super-fast access to it, Synology’s mid-range DiskStation DS1517 is the upgrade you’re looking for. The Best Premium NAS: Synology DiskStation DS1517 ($560) It sips electricity like a fancy-pants bar patron who accidentally ordered a Jack and Coke but is too embarrassed to send it back. In addition to a low price-only about $20 more expensive than budget dual-bay hard drive enclosures-this smaller NAS is easy on your power bill. Most importantly, the NAS includes free access to Synology’s impressive suite of cloud connection apps, allowing you and other users to access storage, sync files, and stream audio, video, and photos as fast as your network connection will allow. The DS218 design isn’t new, but the upgraded J variant adds USB 3.0 ports on the back for easy expansion. The enclosure uses a dual-core 1.3GHz processor and 512MB of local RAM in order to efficiently read and write across the network, and a single gigabit Ethernet port will keep things speedy.

With two full-sized 3.5-inch bays and support for up to 24 terabytes of storage between them, Synology’s DS218j entry model should be more than enough for most users.

The Best Basic NAS: Synology DiskStation DS218j ($170)

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