Personal Cloud for my Small Business

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taffetto

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Hello Everybody!

My small business is looking for a storage solution that will allow me and my employees to access an hard disk from both in and out our LAN network, preferably using both Windows Explorer and Mac's Finder. What drive would you guys suggest? I tried to search online but it gets very confusing!

Added bonus: would be also nice to be able to create users and limit access (eg. accountant only sees accounting folder etc.)

Thank you!!
 
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kanewolf
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taffetto

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I was thinking about a physical storage system..

Space is not that much of an issue, 1/2TB will be plenty for now.

Simultaneous users, I would say a peak of 5, but an average of 1.1

I don't know what windows domain is (I have Mac Os) :)

Budget: on the affordable side, we are a startup :)
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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A couple TB is pretty small. A dual drive NAS would be plenty. Look at the Synology DS214+. It is a small business oriented device. It will (eventually) be able to become part of your consolidated user management (LDAP or Windows Domain). It could even host those services.
Run through the live demo of the software. It will give you an idea of how to admin the box and some of the features.

Synology NAS units are "BYOD", you buy the disks separately. You could get a couple of WD Red disks. Set them up as two independent disks and do backups from one to the other. You could use the TimeBackup add on to keep multiple versions.

The other major vendors you might want to investigate are Qnap and Thecus. They have products which directly compete with Synology and are very similar. I have owned Synology products so I can better speak to the capabilities, but you might like the user interface on one of the competing brands. They also have web demos of their software.
 
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taffetto

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Thank you for the answer!

How are these different from cheaper alternatives such as the WD MyCloud?
Will I be able to access file through the Mac Finder if I buy the Synology or the other brands? What about limiting the access for each user? I tried to look at their website but its not too clear (for a newbie like me!)
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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I can't comment on Mac -- don't use one.

There are a range of versions of Synology. There are cheaper versions. You are paying for the software. You are paying for the ability to run additional applications on the NAS.

You said this was a small business, so I chose models that are appropriate for small business. I believed that you would want the opportunity to do backups and possibly even multi-version. Those are small business type features. Those features require multiple disks. The ability to utilize centralized user management is a small business type feature. A business doesn't want to have the admin add (and possibly forget to delete) users as employees change. I don't believe that WD has these type features. It could also be that my interpretation of "affordable side" is completely different than yours. You didn't specify a value for budget. That could value could constrain me to not having a legitimate recommendation.
 
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taffetto

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Sorry kanewolf, I have very little knowledge on these kind of products :)
Actually what you suggested is very good. I didn't take in account the multi-version backup features (which are VERY interesting) and the centralizied user management (I was expecting to add and delete manually) I see what I will be paying for now :)

Thank you for your explanation!
 
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taffetto

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Are you familiar with the difference between the various DS214 models? I see that different versions are offered: DS214se DS214j and DS214+. From my understanding the difference lies in processing power and Ram, the price differential is substantial though.
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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Yes, I CAN comment on the different 214 versions, no Apple required :)

Synology's website lets you compare -- Compare Link

The 214se is the lowest performance version. It is targeted to a home audience. Notice it only has a single core CPU and the smallest amount of RAM. Notice that the 214se doesn't have USB3.0 only USB2.0. If you wanted to use an external disk for additional backups you would be limited to a USB2.0 transfer speed. Notice that 214+ has USB3.0 AND eSATA. eSATA is even a better performing interface for an external disk. The 214+ has TWO gigabit ethernet ports. You can logically group the two ports (you have to have the right network hardware) to provide more that 1Gb of bandwidth to the users. So the 214+ is a higher performing version of the 214. Higher clock speed on the CPU, more RAM, etc. All the Synology units have the same software available.

Think of them as "small", "medium", and "large" ...
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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You will have some options for how you access the disks. I would recommend "JBOD" -- "Just a bunch of disks". This will let you create two independent volumes with the two physical disks. You can then copy between them for backups. If you ever want/need a third copy then an external (USB/eSATA) disk can be connected for additional independent backups. You could also, if you had to have more space, change the disks to a RAID 0 (striped). The data wouldn't have any extra protection from the RAID 0 but you would have double the space in a single volume. You would then DEFINITELY need to have an external disk for backups. The forums over at synology.com are really good also. I would recommend joining them also.
 
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