A few weeks back, I wrote an article about how local AI servers are bringing everything full circle, away from cloud storage. If Microsoft’s latest move, reducing the amount of storage you get with Microsoft 365, is anything to go by, then the humble NAS starts to seem like a good investment again.

For quite some time, Microsoft 365 Family has been one of the best value software subscriptions: the full Office suite of desktop apps, plus the cloud apps and 1TB of OneDrive storage per user (up to six users) for just £79.99 a year. It was remarkable value.

Of course, Microsoft whacked the price up to £104.99 a year for the ‘benefit’ of having slightly rubbish AI with Co-pilot, but most existing users could ‘downgrade’ to the cheaper Classic package without Co-pilot and, even if you didn’t, that price was still very good for all you got.

Same price for less

Yesterday, I got an email from Microsoft, labelled “Upcoming changes to your Microsoft 365 subscription”. I opened it, and the first bullet point was titled “More flexible cloud storage”. I skim-read what it said, and my first thought was that the 1TB per user was being replaced by 2TB per user. That’s generous, I thought. Then, I read it again: “Your cloud storage allowance will change from 1 TB per person to 2 TB of shared storage so everyone on the plan can use the free space while keeping their own accounts and files private. This change will apply after your first renewal after May 2nd, 2027.”

So, rather than everyone getting 1TB of cloud storage, everyone now has to share everything. That’s fine if you’ve got a lot of light users, but if you’ve got a busy household, 2TB isn’t going to cut it.

In reality, Microsoft has turned 6TB of cloud storage into 2TB, while charging the same price. It’s not about flexibility; it’s about cost-saving. It’s shrinkflation. No doubt, the high cost of AI, which has pushed up the prices of storage and memory, has something to do with this, but it’s a rubbish move all round.

Suddenly, the NAS seems like a good idea

The NAS used to be the heart of the home, providing all of the storage you needed, plus things like apps for photo and video sharing. Then, cheap cloud storage services came along, such as Dropbox, and it seemed easier to pay a monthly fee. Today, the NAS doesn’t sound like such a bad idea after all.

Sure, the cost of hard disks has rocketed recently, but then again, the cost of cloud services has gone up or, as with Microsoft, the amount of storage you get has dropped.

And, you don’t have to buy new hard disks; if you’ve got a few old PCs around, you may be able to harvest them for parts. Indeed, my very own NAS is filled with four old 2TB hard disks that I’d got over the years.

In a RAID5 configuration, I’ve got 6TB of storage to use as I want, with cloud synchronisation to my devices, plus a full media server of the CDs that I’ve ripped, and a Plex server for those films and TV shows that just aren’t on the streaming services.

If something goes wrong, I’ve got to sort it out, but everything is mine, and I don’t have to pay monthly for the service. At some point, hard disk costs will fall again, but I don’t think companies will restore cloud storage amounts or reduce monthly subscription costs to match.

With seemingly every company after a monthly subscription, having a NAS that does everything with an upfront cost feels like it’s the future, once again.