My NAS does more than store files, and most people are barely using theirs
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A NAS can serve as more than just a file storage box — it can run lightweight containers and essential self-hosted services 24/7. Services like Jellyfin (with GPU passthrough for 4K transcoding), Nextcloud, Nginx Proxy Manager, and Authentik can all run reliably on a NAS alongside standard backup workflows. The key distinction is using the NAS for stable, storage-heavy services rather than experimental virtualization, which risks data integrity. Modern NAS units often have spare CPU and RAM headroom that goes to waste if only used for file syncing.
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NAS units are perfect for deploying storage-hogging servicesBut I wouldn’t recommend using it for virtualization experiments1.8K Impressions