Running a small to medium size business presents enough challenges of its own without having to worry about infrastructure, but businesses need storage capacity just like home users do; however, their requirements extend beyond just the need for more space. Downtime and lost data are two things businesses can't afford. Statistics concerning small businesses and data loss are very sobering, with a staggering 70 percent of small firms that experience a major loss of data end up closing their doors within a year1.It's not only ensuring reliable access and securing the data that businesses need worry about. Relying on direct attached storage or local drives can result in storage 'silos' making sharing and data backups more difficult. The obvious answer to these issues is some sort of network based storage solution. While placing your data on the network does not protect you against catastrophes such as fire or natural disasters, it can offer protection against hard drive failures and make implementing a robust backup plan easier.Perhaps you've noticed the emphasis on the business-related aspect of network storage. While there are similarities between home/small office requirements and those of small/medium size businesses (SMB) and some products are marketed to both segments, businesses have other unique requirements and don't necessarily need some of the bells and whistles used to attract home buyers when it comes to networked storage. One of those areas is the ability to implement a storage area network (SAN) using a network appliance as well as emphasis on offering a complete solution, which is where the MicroNet MaxNAS unit being reviewed here comes into play.MicroNet may not be a name that's familiar to a lot of people, but the company has been around for over 20 years as a provider of storage solutions for SMBs. Based out of Torrance, California, MicroNet and Fantom Drives are part of the same family, offering a wide range of storage products from single-drive external units to enterprise-class multi-bay rack-mount storage arrays. The particular unit under review is the MaxNAS 2.5TB RAID with SCSI, a 5-bay unit that ships with five 500GB drives with support for RAID 0/1/5/6/10 volumes and works as a NAS unit as well as operating as an iSCSI target to allow you to build a SAN using existing IP infrastructure. MicroNet also offers the MaxNAS in 5TB and 7.5TB models.