Where am I to start with the QNAP TS-859 Pro. It costs as much as a high performance PC, but still manages to impress. QNAP has gone a long way and has created a powerful NAS with a very long feature set usually not found in such a unit usually categorized as a "network accessible storage" device. While you can slap eight hard drives in there and configure them as RAID and access the data over your network, back up your host computers automatically and act as a file server within your network, it does not stop there. Those are features you would expect to see in a NAS, but with the TS-859 Pro you can also manage your media and prepare it for playback over the web and create your own FTP or Web server. There is just so much you can do with the unit, with such a solid interface and software functionality to drive it, that every cent spent on the device seems worth it.
You do have to realize that the TS-859 Pro is not intended to be placed under your TV and playback files - QNAP offers the NMP-1000 for such a purpose, but it is meant to unify some of your separate servers into one compact and high efficiency device. Imagine having a web server, an FTP server and a file server in your small business. All these are easily replaced by the QNAP TS-859, only requiring a fraction of the power. That said, 1179 Euros is a huge price tag and that does not even include hard drives. A device of this size is only well placed in an environment which will make good use of it. For those with smaller ambitions, you should go for the TS-259 Pro two bay unit or the TS-459 Pro, which is a four bay one. The great thing about these is that they are much more affordable, but offer the exact same feature set across the board. This means that QNAP has a NAS with the functionality for every user, may it be for your home network, a small start-up or a growing business.