I care about owning my own data very much. This makes me conservative when it comes to these solutions, despite otherwise being an early adopter of everything tech.
For that reason I always recommend Synology NAS machines. They have been around forever, they work for years on autopilot and feel very similar to a microwave in terms of operational overhead. One-time purchase. No subscriptions. But most importantly, the ecosystem is stable and mature. And they are easy to understand and reason about and come with a slick UI with mobile apps. My favorite feature is having my massive photo collection always available on my phone, served from my own basement (with encrypted AWS Glacier backups).
[EDIT] This is Brandon Phillips of CoreOS fame sharing this! Maybe I should take a closer look then.
For that reason I always recommend Synology NAS machines. They have been around forever, they work for years on autopilot and feel very similar to a microwave in terms of operational overhead. One-time purchase. No subscriptions. But most importantly, the ecosystem is stable and mature. And they are easy to understand and reason about and come with a slick UI with mobile apps. My favorite feature is having my massive photo collection always available on my phone, served from my own basement (with encrypted AWS Glacier backups).
[EDIT] This is Brandon Phillips of CoreOS fame sharing this! Maybe I should take a closer look then.