Photo Storage takes a giant leap forward with the ReadyNAS Personal Cloud.

Photographers always needed more storage for their thousands of photographs. As the size of the sensors and file sizes have grown from a lowly 2-4 megabyte files to whopping 25-36 meg files and beyond our old methods of backing up data have become as antiquated as those 2 & 4 meg cameras.

You can no longer do much of a backup on writable CDs and backing up on DVDs can require several discs per per project. Even external hard drives fill up quickly for the storage-hungry photographer. I often shoot thousands of images each month on DSLRs, 4/3 cameras, rangefinders and iPhones. My cards were always full of phoptopgraphs, my iphone and laptop bloated with images awaiting backup. Or worse yet I was always having trouble finding the image I wanted to share or use in my next travel post here on Travel Boldly after I had cleared my cards and/or removed the images from my iPhone and laptop. Which external hard drive or flash drive were they on?

Enter personal cloud storage and the ReadyNAS system by NetGear. This is a product that can replace your legions of external hard drives, flash drives, CDs and Dvds and free up your bloated phone, laptop and desktop hard drives.

ReadyNAS is a private home cloud storage system that can be managed through ReadyCLOUD software by NetGear. This interface allows all the benefits of public cloud storage, but without the monthly or annual subscription costs and the privacy risks of having your data "out there" in the public cloud. You can access, manage and share files stored on your ReadyNAS desktop system from anywhere in the world, from any web browser, using any of your connected devices.  You can utilize a single, unified web interface whether you’re at home, at work or traveling. You'll have Google Drive™-style accessibility and Dropbox®-like capabilities such as sharing files with a single click.

I now have a secure, private, personal cloud from which I can share and utilize my images, videos and content. This is especially important for me as travel blogger. I was always traveling with a ziplock baggy of flash drives and a couple of heavy external drives, For extended trips I would often strip almost every bit of data off my laptop and camera phones so I would not run short of space for the photos I'd be making on my trip.  Now I don't have to do that. Though, beginning a trips with cleared cards and camera phones still seems prudent if only for organization purposed it is not something I must do before a trip. I can now if necessary back all my devices while on the road anytime I have fast reliable Internet connection.

Certainly, I am still getting used to this new system. And while it gives you the space you need to get organized, it does not perform miracles and arrange all of your thousands of uncatalogued images for you. I am still developing my own management systems for managing my images. (If anyone has any recommendations please let me know via the comments.) I can see light at the end of the tunnel.  I have a way forward into the future to manage the thousands of digital photographs I create each year.

I was provided a ReadyNAS model 102 2TB with 2 terabytes of storage for the purpose of this review. One thing to keep in mind is that there is also a model 102 00 diskless system that includes no native storage. Unless you just happen to have a couple of compatible high-speed hard drive disks laying around your place or know where you can pick them up on-the-cheap I recommend ordering the 102 with either 2 - 1 terabyte drives or 2 - 2 terabyte drives. I'd definitely order the 102 with the 4 terabyte capacity given that it is only a few dollars more. Or, I'd step up to the model 314 3 bay 12 terabyte system.  While I have not come close to filling up 2 terabytes yet I can see a day when I'll be expanding to 4 terabytes and beyond especially as more and more of my images are RAW files.

One other caveat to be aware of is that if you get your Internet through a shared connection such as
wifi provided by your building complex or are using hotspots or satellite Internet services, ReadyNAS is probably not for you. You have to be able to install the system with a direct hardwired ethernet connection to your router. The installation of the software to operate the storage device is mostly painless and accessing the storage remotely is straight forward.

ReadyNAS personal cloud will work wonders for travel bloggers and travel photographers' data storage needs. It is a great comfort to leave home knowing that should you have to produce an article from your trip to Italy last year while you are on the road in Turkey or Brazil in 2015 you'll have access to all your photography and notes stored on the your personal ReadyNAS cloud.

Jerome Shaw Editor at Travel Boldly. Message him here via comments or on Twitter at @JeromeShaw or on G+ +Jerome Shaw Travel 



Buy your ReadyNAS System below.

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 314 12 TB 4-Bay (4 x 3 TB) Network Attached Storage (RN31443D-100NAS)

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 102 4TB (2 x 2TB) 2-Bay Network Attached Storage (RN10222D-100NAS)

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 102 2TB (2 x 1TB) 2-Bay Network Attached Storage (RN10221D-100NAS)

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 102 2-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (RN10200-100NAS)

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 104 4-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (RN10400-100NAS)