need external storage for mac mini server

[btwong]

I am working for a company that is about to upgrade their old G4 server, to a mac mini server edition.

We want this mini to manage all logins, shares, security settings, internal intranet hosting, etc, but our problem is that we need about 2-4tb's of storage for all our files, and these files must be able to be managed/permissioned/etc by the mini server.

We have been quoted for a usb/firewire attached raid setup - but i worry that the firewire/usb will be the bottle neck in regards to transfer speeds to and from the server and the attached storage. Is this where a thunderbolt setup would be idea?

Can any one give me some suggestions on what extra storage i should/could get to be the space up to about 4-6 tbs (and must be a raid setup!)

thanks

 

[tersono]

Take a look at synology's NAS systems. They're highly Mac-friendly and there's solutions to suit most budgets. Sounds like a 4-disk RAID5 would probably be your best bet.

Don't forget backup too - even RAID arrays can die unexpectedly (I'm speaking from bitter experience!)