Do i need a NAS?

[panorios]

Hi.

I run a small company doing commercial photography.

We have 5 computers where we use Lightroom and Photoshop for color and retouch.

Worst case scenario is when 3 people need to access, copy, or save large amounts of photos.

Our current workflow is as follows. We use one PC as a server and workstation, the main purpose of that one is creative retouching and illustration, not much batch operations on that computer. So we have 1 hard drive shared on that PC and everyone accesses files there. I also have a mirrored HD for safe backup installed and it updates twice a day with "Syncback". We are on a 1Gbps switch.

Our total capacity of installed storage is 2x8 TB discs mirrored and that is roughly the amount of data we use in 6 months. We also keep backups in external drives once we deliver our projects.

Now, we are about to do an upgrade and i am not convinced i need to go the NAS way. Here is my questions.

1. Say i get a 16 core processor 64 GB of ram, a 8GB PCI ssd drive for my main computer and a 10Gbps switch and network controllers.

2. I buy the Qnap TVS-872XT  with 2x1 TB nvme drives and 4x10GB HD in Raid 5.

What do you think is the best way to go?

Any other suggestions? 

Thank you all.

 

 

[Windows7ge]

Does everybody jointly agree that a centralized location to pull files from or send finished items to would be a good idea? Then Yes a NAS or File Server may be a good idea.

 

If it's for a legitimate operation though I can't say I back your idea of using a consumer/prosumer intended product though. There are business level solutions for companies that require network storage.

[Dutch_Master]

While I agree that for a business the use of consumer-grade hardware is not recommended, there's no reason you can't build your own server-grade NAS, as the assembly of such machine is no different then a desktop, you just use different parts/components. But it's not necessarily cheaper and doesn't come with a warranty on assembly/installation. Having said that, if you choose the components wisely, there's more room for future expansion of storage and/or functionality over a purchased dedicated product.

 

One alternative could be cloud storage. That could be done on your own hardware in your own office with tools like Nextcloud or Owncloud, but may require a bit more knowledge then currently available in house. Online cloud storage is also an option, there's plenty of that to go around, ask Amazon or Google

[zorcat27]

1 hour ago, Dutch_Master said:

One alternative could be cloud storage. That could be done on your own hardware in your own office with tools like Nextcloud or Owncloud, but may require a bit more knowledge then currently available in house. Online cloud storage is also an option, there's plenty of that to go around, ask Amazon or Google

If you do want to setup a cloud based system, I (a college student with vary basic linux and sys admin skills) setup a few NextCloud servers for a company I worked with over the summer. It wasn't too challenging and has some cool features.

 

Side note: I would recommend adding the Collabora app onto your install of nextcloud even if you don't activate or use the collaboration functions. It adds some functionality where your nextcloud will be able to handle windows naming conventions of files, ie: you could have MyFile.txt and MyFile.pdf in Windows no problem, but without the Collabora plugin, NextCloud saves the files as MyFile on the server without the extension in the name which will cause a problem. Ironically, it still remembers the file extensions when accessing them on a Windows computer, it just doesn't use it in the name during storage so filenames can clash.

 

NextCloud is pretty cool and easy to setup. You can use it in a web format or add a network location and use the webdav protocol to access and upload data to it. They have a client too, but we didn't use it.

 

If you don't use it at work, it could be a fun project for home use too.

[GDRRiley]

move to a NAS or a central server. you could go cheap and pick up an older server used pop 8  6TB or 8TB or 14TB (best price to size drives right now for NAS/server drives) and make a raid 6. that should give between 30-70tb.

an 8 bay nas would do just the same

ASUSTOR Lockerstor 8 AS6508T would do well and there is others out there.

[panorios]

Thank you all for taking the time to help me.

Unfortunately the cloud storage is not an option. I am on a VDSL connection (5 Mbit/s upstream). I have 2 of those paired with speedify so my total upload speed is 10 Mbit/s.

 

[zorcat27]

11 hours ago, panorios said:

Thank you all for taking the time to help me.

Unfortunately the cloud storage is not an option. I am on a VDSL connection (5 Mbit/s upstream). I have 2 of those paired with speedify so my total upload speed is 10 Mbit/s.

 

If it is helpful. The NextCloud is just all of the software for a locally hosted cloud type storage system. You'd buy a server and set it up with a linux distro and install nextcloud. Then your whole office could use it as storage just like a normal nas. It just has the extra benefits of being able to access it through a web environment along with adding it as a network location for local use. You wouldn't have to worry about an internet connection for anything other than software updates/installation. You would just need to make sure everyone who needed to access it was on the same network with it. I hope that helps clarify what we meant by NextCloud. You don't need to pay them to host, you can throw it onto a local server machine and benefit from a cloudlike storage nas environment.