Thoughts and questions about product longevity, replacements and roadmap

[Sacha00Z]

13 years ago, I bought a QNAP TS-410, and it's still in use today. Sure, the software is old and unsupported, but it does receive important security updates, and for an internal SMB/NFS/FTP server, it's perfect. I've learned some hard lessons with this device, and it certainly has its quirks, but I can say that this is probably the oldest piece of tech in my home, and possibly the oldest piece of electronics! I've just re-invested in more storage, so I probably won't upgrade any time soon, but need to start thinking about possible future failure, as the risk increases over time.

I am interested in QNAP's roadmap: What's on the horizon? Where is NAS technology headed? Which new technologies should I be keeping an eye on over the next 5 years? For example, will there be room in the market for a NAS that uses M.2 storage? Or a RAID-native SSD? Is there a trend for NAS to become more and more server-like, or is there a market for KISS? (There must be more people like me who just use a NAS for network storage).

What about emerging network protocol standards? What about services to support native operating system backup utilities, drive imaging utilities, or network boot protocols? Is there a trend toward isolated home automation sensors & switches? What about wireless protocols such as Zigbee/CSA? (Or is this one step too far for a storage array?)

There's been a lot of bad press about QNAP and ransomware, and frankly, as an application architect by profession, I tend to steer away from deploying any sort of Internet application, connecting to a cloud gateway, or allowing any sort of NAT/UPnP routing. Any sort of device that requires cloud connections or relies on external network services is out of the question. All of my applications are currently running in containers on a separate Linux server (old laptop), which leverages NAS storage using NFS (with shell scripts on the NAS to reset permissions).

So, with that in mind, what sorts of product lines are in the pipeline for users like me, who just want a stable, basic system which will last for more than a decade and provide basic LAN services without cloud?

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

mine was a ts-509 pro. still can be used today albeit if u don't encryption (cauz its slow cauz it doesn't have AES ni in the cpu), EOL QTS (very old legacy volume system still).

if u r seeing the latest qnap offers, just look at the X73a series. Has QUTS hero which is essentially openzfs.