Sales of network attached storage (NAS) in the United States are likely to reach 13 million over the next four years, according to research from Parks Associates.
Its report, titled Home Servers and Consumer Storage: Analysis and Forecasts, predicts strong growth in digital content libraries between now and 2012.
Existing storage solutions are ill-equipped to handle large amounts of music, video and digital images and consumers will demand increasingly powerful devices, it claims.
Jane Shields, research analyst at Parks Associates, said: "Soon the average broadband household will need close to a terabyte of storage for their media collections on PCs, portable devices and DVRs."
Network attached storage sales are therefore expected to increase in line with digital content growth, she added.
However, Ms Shields warned that storage capacity is not the only thing consumers will be looking for in network attached storage devices.
Capabilities such as file allocation, searching and media sharing will all be in demand and the network industry will have to adapt their offerings accordingly.
Meanwhile, D-Link, whose products include switches and other networking equipment, has launched a new network storage enclosure. The DNS-343 allows users to store, share, and safeguard documents, music, videos and photos.
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Last Updated: 05/08/2008 17:33
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