Netgear ReadyNAS 716 Review: 10GBase-T in a Desktop NAS

Miscellaneous Factors and Final Words

The Netgear ReadyNAS 716 is a 6-bay NAS, and there are many applicable disk configurations (JBOD / RAID-0 / RAID-1 / RAID-5 / RAID-6 / RAID-10). Most users looking for a balance between performance and redundancy are going to choose RAID-5. Hence, we performed all our expansion / rebuild duration testing as well as power consumption recording with the unit configured in RAID-5 mode. The disks used for benchmarking (OCZ Vector 4 120 GB) were also used in this section. The table below presents the average power consumption of the unit as well as time taken for various RAID-related activities.

Coming to the business end of the review, the ReadyNAS 716 is a bold product from Netgear. While ReadyNAS OS 6 needs further work to achieve feature parity with the competition (more apps, SMB features such as SSD caching etc.), Netgear must be appreciated for making an attempt to bring 10-GbE capabilities to the desktop NAS form factor. Additionally, the choice of 10GBase-T makes the product even more ground-breaking.

For SMBs making their first foray into 10-GbE, the use of backward compatible 10GBase-T equipment is a big plus. Netgear has affordable 10GBase-T switches in the XS series (the 12-port XS712T and the 8-port XS708E). Introducing a 10GBase-T NAS at south of $3000 also serves Netgear well in terms of expanding the addressable market for those switches. All in all, the Netgear ReadyNAS 716 is an impressive and revolutionary product. The market for 10G equipment outside of a server rack is currently limited. However, we believe that the ReadyNAS 716 is just the start of many more good things to come in terms of affordable 10-GbE equipment outside the datacenter space.