FreeNAS vs Junos OS

FreeNAS is well suited for most storage serving scenarios, whether it be for an office file server, backup destinations, data replication across the internet, or as backend storage for virtual machines. It can serve various types of clients via a plethora of standard protocols and can easily integrate with existing infrastructure using LDAP authentication and so on. It's pretty simple to use (it helps to have at least a basic understanding of the underlying technologies) and almost maintenance-free. One scenario that springs to mind that it may not be appropriate for (yet) is as S3 storage. However, S3 functionality was added in a recent release and may have improved greatly since then. I'm sure it will eventually work very well for this.

Juniper Operating systems are well suited for distribution and edge networks. When we evaluated them for a proposal to core networks we decided to go with other vendors, as the processing capacity of core routers was lower. Typical environments Junos OS has fit in our organization are enterprise, customer edge, distribution networks.

• The FreeNAS web interface is modern looking. It makes tasks like provisioning drives into raid volumes easy.
• The ZFS raid option allows you to add in an SSD as a cache drive to increase performance.

• BGP auto-peering
• Juniper ATP cloud for threat profiling
• Segment Routing algorithms allows customization

• Not good for beginners as it requires deep understanding of networking and storage.
• Most of the good and required features are not available in free version.

• GUI has come a long way, but can be improved
• SDN features
• Training, documentations and online discussion forums can be improved.

There were some things that can be found by other users on forums and Google and some things that were not.

FreeNAS effectively uses all resources really well and it is highly recommended for in premises NAS. It has unlimited ROI as it is really free and open-source. The only payment we need to pay is when we need any support from those guys. FreeNAS helps us to effectively do our work with the legacy systems as it manages all the components really well. FreeNAS although rebranded to TrueNAS will still be there until our legacy systems run.

We have stuck to iOS for datacenter networks for many years due to familiarity and ease of use. Junos OS is well suited for business customers, due to cost-effectiveness and not frequent changes to end routers. Junos OS is very comparable to its competitors, but it bit behind on core layer solutions.

• Low-Cost Network Attached Storage
• Provides additional network storage to support client & business operations
• FreeNAS secures our data using custom encryption keys

• Junos OS is cost effective
• Uptime is impressive and has proven availability
• Lack of training among employees has made it harder for few teams to troubleshoot