Wow, there are so many questions to be answered here. I will take a quick swag.
#1 Storage:
There are so many storage options to consider that it is hard to offer one. My advice would be to focus on a storage-centric solution. I do not have a ton of experience personally or here with systems that run on Windows and think that you are likely better off getting a device that comes with a dedicated storage OS.
When you think about storage options, you need to ask yourself about functionality, budget and support. For example, people here love Synology which is a great consumer level device and is relatively inexpensive. As an alternative you could go for low-end enterprise hardware. EMC, for example, offers the VNXe3200 which will be more expensive, but will bring an enterprise feature set and more importantly, enterprise support.
The choice of solution comes down to your business requirements and budget.
#2 Backup Target:
When it comes to protecting your NAS, you need a solution that will best meet your budget, functionality and support needs.
Tape is certainly a good option from a budget standpoint, but it can have limitations when it comes to backup (and recovery) speeds. The other option to consider is disk-based backup and there are many solutions including generic disk or even specialized appliances like EMC’s Data Domain DD2200.
The disk solutions might be more expensive than tape, but they are typically easier to use and more reliable than tape. From a support viewpoint, it depends what you purchase and naturally Data Domain will bring EMC’s support organization.
#3 Backup Software:
No matter what option you pursue on the backup hardware front, you will need backup software to orchestrate the protection of your information. The cost, functionality and support of backup software can vary too. In fact, at the most basic level you could use free, open source stuff or you could go with a more advanced commercial package.
The thing to remember is that whatever backup software you choose now will likely impact your IT infrastructure for years to come. It can be painful to switch and so making a better choice now can pay massive dividends in the future.
A typical commercial backup application provides a much more robust feature set than free offerings. (Look for NDMP support which is a specialized protocol for NAS protection which you might need in the future or even now if you go with enterprise hardware.) This is why it is so critical to understand your requirements today and expectations for the future. EMC’s options in the backup application space include NetWorker and Avamar.
