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.
Quantum StorNext is well suited in environments with a high, fast paced workflow, with lots and lots of client systems connected, all needing to share the same assets, where you cannot have one moment of downtime. With the pace nowadays that clients expect work to get done, as opposed to 10 years or so ago (pre-iPhone social media instant instant gotta have it right away days), even downtime of 30 minutes can back up your whole workflow. As they say, time is money and Quantum StorNext almost certainly guarantees you have little to no downtime at all. It just works, silently, quietly in the background, making sure everyone is performing at 100% of their potential or more.
Quantum StorNext just works and by that, I mean it just works flawlessly in the background, while your artists are doing their creative work on jobs with clients. Technical issues and hold-ups should never get in the way of the creative process.
There is a lot of flexibility with StorNext and options available in software and hardware, to customize the best solution for your workflow.
Great customer support and response times when things do need supporting, whether there is an issue with a piece of hardware (i.e. battery backup to a controller unit that needs replacing). Quantum along with our local support vendor are fast to respond.
Price. Obviously, when you are at the level of performance that is needed for our work, Quantum can only go so low as a company on cost, to give their customers a blockbuster deal. But any possible discount here and there helps, and Quantum does their best to lower it as low as possible with bundles and pricing deals. By no means is price a deterring factor, for if you are playing at this level (Ferrari vs Camaro), you know it's going to expensive, but it's a solid investment if you want the reliability and performance. And it's actually cheaper when you compare it to other competitors, along with upgrade paths down the road that will cost you less.
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.
Our first shared storage was from Facilis. This is a great company, with great hardware and software, of which we use in our NYC office. At the time, it did what we needed it to do and performed smoothly. But then our workflow expanded dramatically and needed to look for the level of SANs in the Quantum range. We passed our Facilis along to the NYC office and ended up getting an Active Storage SAN, which ran on StorNext. That company unfortunately went out of business a few years back (they are back in business within the last year, but I think Chinese owned), so we looked into getting a fully integrated all-in-one Quantum system that included its branded storage and MDCs to work with StorNext.
Quantum StorNext has allowed us to not only perform at a higher level, but greatly expand how many client systems are connected to the SAN. Prior to Quantum, our old SAN could barely handle the workload of half the client systems we have now. So for ROI, I'm not involved with the actual numbers, but I know our work with clients has expanded ten fold and there is no sign of it slowing down.
Confidence and my time not wasted, working with the support vendors to solve a problem. My time is then spent on other areas and projects in the company, not on phone calls and emails.
