I stopped using my NAS as a NAS, and it became the most useful machine in my house
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Treating a NAS purely as file storage undersells its potential. By running Docker containers and services directly on the NAS — where the data already lives — it becomes a reliable home lab hub. The key insight is that co-locating storage-dependent services (media servers, backups, dashboards) with the data they use simplifies the setup and improves reliability. However, restraint matters: experimental or fragile services are better kept on separate devices to avoid a single point of failure. Storage remains the foundation, but apps built on top of it make the whole machine far more valuable.
Table of contents
A NAS makes more sense as a service hubRunning containers changed what the NAS could becomeThere are still good reasons to keep storage simpleThe better answer is restraint, not artificial limitsSort: