Office server died. Is a cloud-only alternative viable?

[StewartR]

So the server (a QNAP 4-drive NAS) in the office died. Of course I have the data (around 1-2TB) backed up so no issue there. But I'm pondering what to do for a replacement.

I think I have 3 options:

1. Buy another 4-drive NAS.
2. Buy a 2-drive NAS.
3. Go cloud-only.

1. Buy another 4-drive NAS.

In some ways this might be the easiest solution. Buy another box, slot the existing drives into it, done. However, before it died, the dead NAS was reporting that 2 of the drives had failed. It might have been lying to me, but I can't see any way of testing that proposition without installing the drives in a new enclosure. So if I go down this route I might have to buy 2 more drives as well.

2. Buy a 2-drive NAS.

When I bought the old NAS, several years ago, I bought a 4-drive model and set it up with RAID 6 (which can tolerate 2 drive failures), for reasons which might have seemed good to me at the time, but in retrospect might not have been. If I were starting from scratch now, I wouldn't bother with RAID 6. I have an effective backup strategy, both local and online using DropBox, so even in the event of a total NAS failure we can still access the data from DropBox quite conveniently. So I think I would just use RAID 1 (i.e. mirroring), and I'd use a 2-drive NAS with drives of double the size of the old ones.

3. Go cloud-only.

This option intrigues me. I use DropBox to provide portability of some of my personal data which is available on my home PC, laptop, office PC, phone, etc. I also use DropBox for backups of the office NAS. I could imagine not bothering to replace the NAS and just having everything in the cloud, either in DropBox or something similar.

The thing is, though, accessing files from DropBox isn't quite as convenient and easy as it is from a local drive or the NAS. I can't just open them, work on them, and save them back to DropBox when I close them. They have to be downloaded first, then re-uploaded. Admittedly DropBox Sync would get round that, but it would require having a complete copy of everything on everyone's PC, and at 1-2TB that's really not practical. And DropBox wouldn't provide protection against multiple concurrent edits, which is a slight risk.

Is there a cloud storage product out there which allows me to access files as if the were local, through Windows Explorer say? Is cloud-only a viable strategy?

 

[admirable]

I certainly wouldn't go cloud only, what happens if Cloudonly.com goes down the pan or lose the data or, as suspected in the Canon data loss issue, they are held to ransom by hackers?

The issue with some Pro user NAS setups is the data is encrypted, so if the unit fails you cannot retrieve the data.

Would a 'proper' server not suit, running Windows or some other proprietary software?

 

[StewartR]

I certainly wouldn't go cloud only, what happens if Cloudonly.com goes down the pan or lose the data or, as suspected in the Canon data loss issue, they are held to ransom by hackers?

Good point!

The issue with some Pro user NAS setups is the data is encrypted, so if the unit fails you cannot retrieve the data.

I assume encryption is optional. I'd make sure it was switched off. But with a RAID 6 array I can't retrieve the data without putting all the disks into a new unit, so that's pretty much the same position anyway. Or am I missing something?

Would a 'proper' server not suit, running Windows or some other proprietary software?

I guess it would, but it seems a bit of overkill for my needs.

 

[Harlequin565]

We use Sharepoint at work. Pretty much everything is now "in the cloud" which saves having to back stuff up individually per laptop/device and (typically) saves having to have a team look after it! Also allows collaboration on documents, and Teams is a key app for conferencing and sharing as well as working on collaborative projects. Obviously having tools like Excel & Outlook built in with Office 365 is useful too but that's another subscription level.

There is a learning curve - esp with Sharepoint - but it's a big step up from remote drives on a server somewhere.

Obviously it depends on the nature of your business, how many employees you have, what your budget is, and what sort of data is held on these servers - whether it's quite static, like reference documents, or whether collaboration is important. Worth a look as an option though. From the MS website it's not cheap at £3.80/user/month for sharepoint, and £9.40 if you want the 365 apps (ex. vat) although they do a trial.

 

[StewartR]

We use Sharepoint at work. Pretty much everything is now "in the cloud"...

That's interesting. My wife uses Sharepoint and Teams at work, so I had already asked her how it works and concluded that it wasn't a solution for me. She says that Sharepoint stores local copies of your documents on your computer and syncs them in the background. That's the same model I get with DropBox, (Except that DropBox sync is quick and reliable and she says that Sharepoint sync isn't.) Is that just a feature of the way her company has configured it?

(Although to be honest, I think the Microsoft solution is probably a bit of overkill for a small business with just a handful of computers.)

 

[admirable]

I assume encryption is optional. I'd make sure it was switched off.

I've never personally come across that option, certainly not with Western Digital.

But with a RAID 6 array I can't retrieve the data without putting all the disks into a new unit, so that's pretty much the same position anyway. Or am I missing something?

If you could remove the drives and place in another unit of the same make/model/spec then so could a thief!

 

[Mr Bump]

for 1 to 2tb I would have a local Server/NAS replicated to the cloud then you can access and update remotely as well enabling remote working.

even just a small windows 10 PC with a data share setup then use a cloud supplier installed on the PC, to be honest it could even be one of the office PCs

 

[Harlequin565]

She says that Sharepoint stores local copies of your documents on your computer and syncs them in the background.

I think there's different ways of using it. I don't have anything on my local machine and just download the ones I want, work on them and when I hit "save" they go back to the cloud. To be honest, I work on docs and spreadsheets in Teams now and don't even use my local copies of those. It's much easier to share them across different working groups.

I have access on my phone and on my home PC as well as my work laptop which means wherever I am and whatever machine I'm on, I can always access and update the docs.

(Although to be honest, I think the Microsoft solution is probably a bit of overkill for a small business with just a handful of computers.)

This is probably the most important bit and you're probably the only one who can make that decision as you know your business best.