The GnuBee Personal Cloud 2 Is an Affordable, Open Source NAS

When it comes to data storage, online cloud services have stolen most of the headlines for the past several years. It’s easy to see why: cloud storage is cheap, convenient, and secure. But, that doesn’t mean third-party cloud storage is the only way to store your data, or even the best way. If you’re the type of person who needs to store a lot of data and to access it quickly, a more traditional NAS (network-attached storage) system might suit you better.

NAS is a really straightforward storage solution: it’s just a handful of hard drives that are tied together and connected to your network. Generally, they’re setup for both redundancy and increased storage. So, if you wanted triple redundancy, you could connect six 1TB drives together and still have 2TB of storage available.

The GnuBee Personal Cloud 2 (GB-PC2) is a completely open source NAS system that allows you to access your data from anywhere, replicating the convenience of standard cloud services. The GB-PC2 can accept 3.5” hard drives, unlike its predecessor (the GB-PC1) which uses 2.5” drives. It can even be employed as a web server, because the brain of the unit is its own computer.

There are a few benefits to going with a NAS device like the GnuBee Personal Cloud 2: you can store large amounts of data for just the cost of the hard drives (after purchasing the GnuBee), you can be assured you’re the only one with access to that data, and because it’s on your local network you can get to large files quickly. The GB-PC2 is currently being crowdfunded on Crowd Supply, and can be purchased for as little as $249.