Ask HN: Cloud vs. Edge Computing–Why Choose a Local NAS?
Jun 03, 2025 - news.ycombinator.com
The article discusses the advantages of edge computing with a local NAS (Network Attached Storage) over cloud storage subscriptions like iCloud, OneDrive, Google Cloud, and Dropbox. A local NAS can reduce costs by consolidating multiple subscriptions into a self-hosted solution, offering privacy, full data control, and eliminating recurring fees. It provides high performance for tasks such as media streaming, surveillance, AI/ML, and virtualization. By pairing a local NAS with an offsite NAS, users can ensure robust backups and resilience against hardware failures, theft, or natural disasters, using tools like TrueNAS replication or Unraid’s rsync for seamless data replication.
The article also seeks insights for designing a low-cost NAS for edge computing, supporting various operating systems and featuring PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe caching, RAID or flexible arrays, and 25 Gbps networking. It invites feedback on preferences for NAS tasks, performance requirements, LAN speed, storage capacity, operating system choice, design preferences, budget, and pain points with current NAS or cloud solutions. The goal is to create a better NAS product, potentially launching on Kickstarter, and the article encourages readers to share their thoughts via comments or a survey.
Key takeaways:
Edge computing with a local NAS offers cost savings, privacy, and high performance compared to cloud storage subscriptions.
Pairing a local NAS with an offsite NAS provides robust data backup and security without recurring cloud fees.
The proposed NAS design supports multiple operating systems, high-speed networking, and flexible storage options.
Feedback is sought on NAS use cases, performance needs, and design preferences to shape a potential Kickstarter launch.
