I have an old QNAP with dual gigabit ports that needs to be replaced. I've been looking for a new model that supports both Thunderbolt and 10 GbE (over Cat 6a RJ45). Although QNAP offers such models, I prefer to wait for a Thunderbolt 4/USB4 update, so that gives me at least a handful of months. Meanwhile, I see a number of virtualization capabilities advertised on QNAP's website, which leads me to the question:
- How would we use virtualization capabilities of a NAS in a home office setting? Is there a good use case for this?
One of the reasons for flashing Thunderbolt firmware is to enable Thunderbolt Networking, which is necessary for connecting Thunderbolt NAS devices. My suspicion is that Ethernet-over-Thunderbolt operates at 1 GbE speeds even though Thunderbolt itself operates at 40 Gbps. Can anyone confirm?
If so, a 10 GbE Ethernet port would be considerably faster and hence it may not make sense to look for a NAS with Thunderbolt support...