WD My Cloud – A Perfect Home NAS

There was a time in the not-to-distant past when setting up storage solutions on your home network was complicated and expensive.  Then, once you get everything setup, you could only access that Network Attached Storage (NAS) when you were actually in the network.  That doesn’t do you a lot of good if you need that file while you are traveling.

Those problems are exactly what Western Digital set out to solve with their new WD My Cloud solutions.  The network-enabled storage devices are in their second generation now and are more capable and enabled than ever.  Adding the device to your home network is a breeze and the apps available for desktops as well as Android and iOS make your storage available no matter what device you are on or where you are in the world.  It is a powerful, elegant solution that provides ample storage for your files, photos, and videos.  Best of all, it is backed up continually online through the WD My Cloud portal.  Have multiple members of your family who need storage?  No problem.  The WD My Cloud can be configured to be used by multiple users of the same storage device and everyone has private storage space.

WD My Cloud

Recently, Gear Diary was sent a WD My Cloud 4TB to review, and I have to say, it is one of the easiest storage devices I’ve ever set up – at home or work (back in the day, I was a network designer with storage being a key area of specialty).  Plus, at only $160, it is one of the best storage solutions you will find for the price.

Specifications

The My Cloud solutions come in a variety of configurations and sizes.  You can get solutions as big as 16TB and there are single or dual drive variants.  Dual drive solutions give you RAID 1 configuration.  For those that aren’t familiar with RAID configurations, RAID 1 is commonly referred to as mirror drives.  The information on the first drive is copied exactly as it is to the second.  That means, should drive 1 fail, you have everything local on drive 2.  The advantage of this is that you don’t have to download your data should the drive fail, as you would have to do in a single drive configuration.