Buffalo Busts Out Tiny NAS

U.K. startup Buffalo Technology took the wraps off a diminutive 1-Tbyte storage device this week, which the vendor touts as the worlds smallest NAS.

The LinkStation Mini, which is around the size of a video cassette, consists of two 500-Gbyte 2.5-inch laptop drives. These fit into a case measuring just 1.5 by 3.2 by 5.3 inches, weighing around a pound.

With users everywhere struggling with power and space constraints, Buffalo is pushing the LinkStation Mini as a way to pack data storage into a tiny footprint.

“The number of computer peripherals needed to keep up with today’s fast-paced digital world seems to add up daily,” said Takayuki Nishioka, the CEO of Buffalo Technology’s U.S. division, in a statement. ”Businesses and consumers alike are seeking space-saving solutions with the same level of performance and features as standard-sized NAS devices.”

Unlike larger storage systems, the LinkStation Mini can function without a fan, according to Buffalo, which means that the device requires just 10 watts of power. The device also offers a software feature called Remote Power, which lets users turn the unit on and off remotely via the Internet to save energy.On the downside, Buffalo is likely to face skepticism about its mini-NAS in the security area, since it's possible someone could pocket it and walk out of a building -- not a possibility with a larger device.

Priced at $700, the LinkStation Mini will be available next month, when it will likely become the smallest physical NAS on the market.

The LinkStation Mini is up against Netgear’s physically larger ReadyNAS NV+, which weighs over 10 pounds and takes up significantly more space. Other offerings in this arena include Iomega’s StorCenter Pro NAS servers and LaCie’s Ethernet Disk Mini, which both have larger footprints.

”Space is pretty significant,” says Anil Miglani, vice president of storage security research at analyst firm AMI. “Keep in mind that the customers that will be going in for this [type of device] will be smaller businesses that have space limitations -- they are not large enterprises that can dedicate a whole room to their storage infrastructure.”

The LinkStation Mini, which can be connected to a network via its Gigabit Ethernet port, also supports the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standard for sharing the likes of video and music files across different devices.The Mini, which is a scaled-down version of Buffalo’s existing LinkStation NAS offerings, contains DLNA media server software from German vendor TwonkyVision. This is aimed at users looking to stream large numbers of files through DLNA-compatible media players.

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