Is a NAS solution a viable option for a small business?

Thanks Frank.

Not only is NAS viable; depending on your use case it may be a great way to go. My advice, however, is to not get hung up on the solution of NAS vs. file server. I would ask, "Why do I have so many file servers?”

Some reasons you may have multiple file servers have to do with availability requirements, geographical reasons (file shares across a wide area network can perform horribly if the network infrastructure can't support it), capacity requirements, etc. These reasons will affect decisions around NAS adoption and implementation, so you should not assume that switching from servers to NAS appliances will eliminate this sprawl you have today.

Having said that, a little about NAS. File server administration is not rocket science. However, commoditized boxes of storage that work just like Windows file servers, can act as FTP server, and potentially provide advanced data recovery, data deduplication, security, and replication capabilities are attractive to companies. There are typically less moving parts and so hardware failures can be reduced. The capacity is typically higher because they use high density drives and can scale out pretty well. Any the network performance is typically great as well. Be sure that the file server, which most people assume does nothing but serve up files, may be running some application code which, if required, cannot run on a typical commercial NAS solution.
The features and capabilities of each NAS offering varies.

The cost/benefit analysis would have to be done and make sense. Your statement: "more servers on-site than we need" is very subjective. Based upon your responses to my questions above, you may have exactly the right number of servers and switching to NAS would not change that. And if you end up with the same number of NAS appliances as servers, I doubt you’ll get your true ROI.

My best advice to you is you need to understand why you have what you have, work with someone to design a NAS solution for you (they'll do it to get the sale), and see if the cost/benefit exists. Once you know this information, you may actually find that you can consolidate into fewer servers rather than change technology. You will have to consolidate anyway to make NAS viable, so it may be an interim step on the road to NAS adoption.

Frank, I hesitate to offer recommendations for NAS vendors without understanding more about your environment. Our definitions of mid-market may differ and I would hate to go too high or low. If you post more information (# of employees, locations, aggregate data volume) I can better provide some feedback.

I hope this helps you in some way.