The 'new forces' promoting the popularity of NAS are shaping the future of the NAS industry

Maybe it’s because network disks are getting more and more expensive, or maybe it’s because the movies and TV series you want to watch will disappear from the Internet at any time. Many of Xiaolei’s friends have begun to become interested in NAS. Some time ago, Xiaolei even When I returned to my hometown, I was surprised to find a NAS on my desk - the elders in the family bought it to save photos from travels.

In fact, with the popularization of digital concepts, the concept of NAS is no longer an exclusive device for technology enthusiasts. Coupled with the fact that more and more resources on the Internet are "ephemeral", the sudden demand for local file storage has also made ordinary consumers pay attention to the field of NAS.

NAS is finally coming to the masses

In recent years, the NAS (Network Attached Storage) market has shown a significant growth trend. According to 2024 market survey data, the global NAS market size will grow from US$5.6 billion in 2020 to US$8.5 billion in 2023, and is expected to reach US$12 billion by 2027. This growth is mainly due to digital transformation, the popularity of cloud computing and the rapid increase in data storage needs.

In terms of user needs, individuals and home users are paying more and more attention to NAS. In the past, NAS devices were primarily viewed as enterprise-level storage solutions, but now more and more ordinary consumers are choosing NAS devices to meet their home data storage, sharing, and backup needs. Home users need a solution that can securely store large amounts of data and easily share it across multiple devices, and NAS meets this need.

Image source: Synology

Changes in market size also reflect the diversification of user needs. Traditionally, enterprise users have been the main customer base for NAS devices, requiring large capacity, high performance, and reliable storage solutions. However, with the popularity of smart home devices and the increase in personal data storage needs, the demand for NAS devices among home and small office users has risen significantly. According to survey data, home and individual users will account for 35% of the NAS market in 2023, and this proportion is expected to increase further in the next few years.

Emerging brands represented by Green Alliance are particularly eye-catching in this market. With its high cost performance and user-friendly design, Greenlink quickly captured a large market share. According to data, Greenlink's market share will reach 15% in 2024, becoming a new force in the NAS market. By providing simple and easy-to-use products, Greenlink has successfully attracted a large number of non-technical users, especially young people and small and medium-sized enterprise users.

Take the familiar JiSpace as an example. As a relatively new brand, JiSpace has quickly emerged in the NAS market with its simple and easy-to-use design and high cost performance. Jispace's products are mainly aimed at home users and small office users, focusing on ease of operation and practical functionality.

Huawei’s entry into the NAS market has more purposes besides products - NAS is an important step in Huawei’s smart home ecological layout: leveraging its technical advantages in communications and cloud computing, Huawei Not only does it ensure the high performance and stability of NAS, it can also be seamlessly connected with other Huawei smart devices to provide a full range of data storage solutions, suitable for users who require high performance and stability.

Picture source: Green Alliance

As for Green Alliance, I believe everyone will be familiar with it. As a dark horse in the NAS market, Lulian has quickly gained a place in the NAS field by virtue of its rich experience and user base in the field of electronic accessories. Unlike most NAS, Greenlink's NAS is designed to be easy to operate and is especially suitable for ordinary users who are not familiar with technology. But for "advanced players", Green Alliance also provides advanced customized gameplay. Data shows that Greenlink currently occupies about 15% of the market share, and its products are widely popular for their ease of use and reliability.

NAS Where is the overtaking point for the new forces?

So what makes these new NAS devices so popular? What unique competitiveness do those established NAS brands have to attract users?

Compared with traditional NAS brands, NAS "new forces" tend to focus on user experience and convenience in product design: for example, GreenLink provides a simpler user interface and easy-to-operate installation process, which greatly reduces the cost of NAS Equipment usage threshold. In addition, the UGOS Pro system developed by GreenLink for NAS has also made many innovations in product functions, such as internal and external network penetration tools that are more suitable for domestic network environments, localized user management systems, intelligent file management and more suitable for novices. 's app store.

Picture source: Green Alliance

Take Xiaolei’s friend L as an example. As a designer, L often needs to use mobile phones, tablets and other mobile devices to show relevant works and materials to customers. According to him, when he used "Black Qunhui" in the past, he was often unable to access the materials in the NAS in the external network environment due to problems with the internal network and forwarding failures. In the end, he could only risk part of the data being "greened". Stored in an external network disk.

But now almost all domestic NAS brands have specially optimized the problem of network penetration. For example, Green Alliance UGOS Pro greatly simplifies the NAS network configuration process. You can use it directly after installing the hard disk and configuring the account. . But L is not the only friend Xiaolei knows who has switched jobs from the "old brand" to the "new power". Another friend, Y, told Xiaolei many times that "a more stable mobile app" was the reason that prompted him to abandon Synology and use a domestic NAS.

Image source: Synology

In comparison, the products of traditional NAS companies are a bit ungrounded. Since these companies usually adopt a global layout strategy, their product designs and functions are more adapted to the global market rather than specifically targeting user needs in a certain region. Although this strategy can maximize coverage of different markets, it also results in its products being slightly insufficient in localized services. For example, some world-renowned NAS brands often lack localization considerations in user interfaces, feature settings, and customer support, so users may encounter some inconveniences when using them.

Despite these shortcomings, traditional NAS brands still have their significant advantages. First of all, these brands have large user groups and extensive market influence, with many “experienced players” forming a strong user community. This community not only provides a wealth of resources and experience sharing, but also helps new users get started quickly. In addition, traditional brand NAS products usually have greater DIY potential, and users can highly customize the equipment according to their own needs. This is undoubtedly a huge attraction for technology enthusiasts who like to explore and tinker.

In other words, new power brands are rising rapidly with their user-friendly designs and localized functions, while traditional brands rely on their extensive user base and strong DIY capabilities to continue to remain competitive in the market.

In terms of market strategies, the methods of the two camps are also different. Compared with traditional NAS brands, NAS "new forces" show clear differences in market strategies. New power brands usually adopt more flexible and innovative marketing methods to attract a wider user group. For example, Greenlink is more competitive in its pricing strategy and attracts a large number of consumers who are trying NAS for the first time through reasonable prices. In addition, Lulian also actively expands sales channels to allow more users to contact and experience its products through various online and offline channels. In terms of marketing methods, new power brands are good at using social media and e-commerce platforms for promotion, quickly increasing brand awareness and market share.

Image source: Synology

In contrast, traditional NAS brands rely more on their brand loyalty and long-term accumulated user base. These brands usually have richer product lines that can meet the needs of different levels of users. Traditional brands are relatively stable in pricing strategies and maintain their position in the high-end market by providing high value-added services and functions. In addition, these brands also attach great importance to after-sales service and user support, and enhance user stickiness through a complete service system.

In general, new power brands have risen rapidly through innovative market strategies, while traditional brands continue to remain competitive by relying on their deep market foundation and high-quality services. As the market continues to develop, these two types of brands will continue to compete under different strategies and jointly promote the progress of the NAS industry.

What kind of NAS do consumers need?

Of course, more market participants have brought more vitality to the NAS industry, and more and more NAS users have also brought new usage scenarios and even new product directions to the NAS category. .

For example, the popularity of cloud computing has made users' needs for data storage and access more diverse. NAS devices are gradually developing towards the cloud, and providing hybrid cloud storage solutions has become a trend. With the rapid development of cloud computing and edge computing, the NAS industry is also constantly innovating and progressing in technology; the rise of edge computing has promoted the technical improvement of NAS devices in local data processing and low-latency access, especially in IoT devices. In the context of the surge, NAS devices are gradually taking on more edge data processing tasks.

Data storage and security technology are also important directions for the development of the NAS industry. With the explosive growth of data volume, NAS devices are constantly optimized in terms of data compression, deduplication, and storage efficiency to improve storage utilization. In addition, data security has become the focus of users' attention. NAS manufacturers have invested a lot of research and development efforts in data encryption, access control, backup and recovery to ensure the security and privacy protection of user data.

Image source: Green Alliance

But having said that, it must be admitted that compared to very popular popular products such as mobile phones and computers, NAS is really very niche, and compared with the user scale Very small underneath. Of course, for each consumer, whether or not to purchase a product ultimately depends on demand. As we have said before, NAS is a localized private cloud disk. If the storage space of the device itself or the existing cloud disk service can already meet your needs, then the role of NAS may not be that great.

As far as the current NAS market is concerned, the leading manufacturers have an advantage and lack the motivation to change. From Xiaolei's personal perspective, the product idea of ​​this type of NAS still feels like it is stuck in the PC era, and has not been optimized for mobile Internet devices such as mobile phones. NAS from brands such as Green Alliance and Huawei are more in line with current users' usage habits. With differentiated experiences, there are more possibilities for popularizing niche products.

In fact, in addition to brands such as Green Alliance and Huawei, "new forces" such as Xiaomi and Lenovo have previously tested NAS products. It is foreseeable that with the entry of "new forces" and other major manufacturers, the NAS industry will usher in a new wave of changes in the future. For ordinary users, more brands joining in and competing more fully will naturally lead to better products and more cost-effective solutions.

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