Shared Storage for Post-Production: NAS vs SAN vs Cloud for Video Editing Teams
Shared Storage for Video Teams: NAS vs SAN vs Cloud (and Hybrid)
If your editors are still passing hard drives around or waiting on file copies, shared storage will reclaim hours every week. The real decision isn’t whether you need shared storage, but which model fits your team, budget, and workflows.
This guide compares NAS, SAN, and cloud-based shared storage specifically for post-production teams.
What Shared Storage Actually Means in Post-Production
Shared storage is a central media pool that multiple editors, colorists, and audio engineers can access simultaneously, without duplicating footage on each workstation.
Key workflow benefits:
- No more file copying – Open projects directly from shared storage instead of shuttling drives.
- Real-time collaboration – Multiple editors can work on the same project at once.
- Single source of truth – One master copy of every media file, always current.
- Simplified backup – Protect one storage system instead of a dozen machines.
- Faster onboarding – New staff and freelancers get instant access to existing projects.
NAS: Network Attached Storage for Video Editing
A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a dedicated file server on your network that shares storage over standard Ethernet. It’s the most common first step into shared storage for small and mid-sized post teams.
How NAS Works for Video Teams
Your NAS lives on the same LAN as your edit workstations. Systems from TrueNAS, QNAP, and Synology expose shares via SMB or NFS, which are natively supported by:
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- DaVinci Resolve
- Avid Media Composer (for media, not full Avid project sharing)
The critical performance factor is network bandwidth. For serious post-production, plan on 10GbE as your baseline.
NAS Performance Benchmarks
Approximate real-world throughput:
- 1GbE NAS – ~110 MB/s
Suitable for: proxy editing, compressed HD, light workloads.
- 10GbE NAS (HDD RAID) – ~800–1,000 MB/s
Suitable for: 4K ProRes, DNxHR, multicam HD.
- 10GbE NAS (SSD cache + HDD) – ~1,000–1,200 MB/s
Suitable for: mixed 4K/6K editorial and finishing.
- 25GbE NAS (all-SSD) – ~2,500+ MB/s
Suitable for: 8K RAW, heavy color, high track counts.