Synology 920+ for small business

Site Feedback
1

I’m thinking about installing first ever NAS for our company. It’s a small construction company with even smaller office.

Basically, only two computers (one MAC, one PC) will connect to the NAS. From what I’ve read I’m leaning towards Synology 920+ with 2 HDD (4TB each I’m thinking). It will be connected to modem router and thus accessible via wifi and vpn/QuickConnect.

Our needs are basically:

- Time Machine + Windows backups while in office (connected through wifi to internal network)

- Access to shared files - basically small word, excel, dwg, pdf files (mostly under 1MB, up to max 10MB) from both computers. All my business folders currently add up to 1,6 GB of data (but it needs optimising anyway).

- Remote access from home through VPN/Synology QuickConnect for MAC and PC

- NICE TO HAVE: ability to run a simple scraper (Python + Scrapy + probably docker) to periodically screen some pages - so maybe also keep some Mongodb database (each scraping cycle downloads around 1MB of data) - done once per week/ maybe once per day on NAS - could be done at night preferably. But if this function drastically ups the price, then I would pass.

Currently I’m doing my local backup at home with Time Machine and the other person does his with PC on different HDD. For now I’m not looking at two NAS with redundancy - I would like to go step by step :slight_smile: Apart from office backup we will keep performing the additional backups at home.

And lastly, what UPS would you recommend? Or other solution?

I assume there will be some fallacies in my thinking, so any thoughts will be much appreciated.

u/UPDATE:

Firstly thank you all for responding and providing your insight :slight_smile:

Based on your comments I have done a simple TCO comparison of 3 NAS configurations vs cloud (OneDrive) for 2 users (5 years TCO - I assume the HDDs may not live longer than that and I would need to invest in the hardware after that period).

NAS options based on your comments:

NAS comparision

OneDrive (Microsoft 365 Business Basic) with 1 TB / user = 850$ (2 users).

I decided to first try to work with cloud, as it provides me an option to go back to thinking about NAS quite quickly if OneDrive won’t meet my needs in any way. Subscription will also give me more time to expand the budget on NAS and go for bigger HDDs from the start.

Once again thank you all for your help! :slight_smile:

2

honestly with requirements that are so small the easiest way would probably be to get a plan for the office package that includes 1TB one drive storage and backup everything to that.

the scraping could be done with a simple raspberry pi and saved to one drive as well.

3

I would suggest you go with a cloud provider for the time being as having a NAS feels overkill. A free Dropbox or iCloud account can hold 1,6 GB of data let alone a Google account so if you get the lowest paid tier at any of the major players you would get far more bang for your bucks. As far as I understand the rest of your data on both of your machines are for personal use and there is already a backup system in place for them.

But if you cannot resist the appeal of a Synology NAS then here is a crazy idea: put it in one of your homes and utilize the rest of its functionality for personal use. This way you could get far more out of your purchase (especially because you mentioned that you’ve moved to 4 days of home office and one day in the office).

In any case a two bay NAS with two 2TB drives should be plenty (500 GB for business, 1,5TB for backup if you have a maximum of 250-500 GB of personal data per person).

4

My initial thoughts are that the 4TB drives wont be enough. Assuming you are mirroring them, its probably about 3.8TB in total (roughly).

I would put in 2 x 8TB drives to give some room for data backup and also time machine backups.

5

I guess if your are going to buy 2 drives only, get a ds220+ instead.

If you are willing to use VPN, I would always prefer that security wise over quick connect. I can recommend tailscale or OpenVPN.

I would also use BTRFS + Snapshots if your start from scratch.

An off site backup to a second nas via VPN and/or to cloud storage is also a good idea, hyperbackup is probably the tool you are looking for.

You can run your scripts and mongodb as docker containers, scheduling can be implemented via task scheduler > custom scripts.

I own an Eaton Eclipse ECO 650VA USB/DIN UPS and use it since August for a ds918+ and are happy so far, it has a small form factor, notifies DSM via USB once it takes over and thereby can initiate a clean shut down after a few minutes of power loss. It will also beep when it starts operating. I also power a raspberry pi and switch over the UPS.
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/aw/d/B0054WJ244/

6

That one supports docker so the scraping should not be an issue.
Also think about the backups, this could be to another Synology Nas or cloud drive.

7

Go for synology 920. It’s future proof. You can achieve every what you said and much more. I think you could install and use “paperlessngx” to manage all your inbound documents automatically parsed from emails, scanners etc. It’s great system. Additionally, IMHO its cheaper than cloud services.

8

If you keep the NAS in the same place as the PC’s you are not doing much in the ways of backups, just accessibility.

So what’d your goal here? Backups? Incremental ones? Just ease of use? How bad is it if you lose all data?

9

You already use Microsoft Office?

If so, a pair of MS365 Business Basic licences would cover all your storage needs. Or go for Business Standard licences if you want to include the desktop apps of Office as well.

10

Can you still find DS920+? Why not DS923+? 3 more years of updates. Better CPU. 10 gig. The only thing the DS920+ does better is transcode video which you don’t need

11

Just get Office365 subscriptions and go fully cloud.

12

I’ve found Time Machine backups over WiFi very unreliable, particularly if there are multiple APs in place and the client roams, but YMMV. They work pretty decently (if not slow) when hardwired.

13

If you only have budget for 920+ and 2 - 4TB drives. That comes out to roughly a budget of $750 using US prices on Amaozn for these items. 599 + 150 = 750

May I suggest increasing the budget a bit and pickup 2 - DS218 synology NAS? 2 bay each.

Setup 1 DS218 as your file share and connect that to the internet for remote access. Use 2-4TB drives in raid 0.

Setup nas 2 DS218 with the synology business incremental backup. Use 2-4TB drives in raid 0.

1 DS 218 = 250
4 4TB = 75

Total? $800

14

Consider installing a physical firewall (firewalla comes to mind). You want to protect your networked NAS and ou could use better security with the firewall than with the NAS alone. Pkus: you can connect to the NAS using LAN with VPN.

15

Thanks for the answer, you are right. However I won’t be able to stay within the budget with 2x8T :frowning:

Do you think it makes sense to downgrade to cheaper Synology model to make up for the price difference and go with 2x8TB?

I thought it would be easier to go for better NAS now, and if I need more space in the future it would be easier to expand the space by adding HHDs (2 remaining sockets) or changing to bigger sizes.

16

Unless OP is considering pivoting their business I hardly think they will struggle with an influx of data in the foreseeable future that would warrant this much storage space. For reference, a boutique firm I know have around 600 GB of data after operating for more than 3 decades (around a hundred thousand threaded emails with attachments, tens of thousands of office documents, some multimedia files and a few apps).

17

I support your idea. The 920+ is too much for the job. Start with a Ds220+ and in the future when you grow you can move to a better synology and take the ds220+ outside the office as a remote backup.

18

Thank you - for now my budget won’t allow for 2 NAS. Currently I keep backup on my HHD at home (which I will keep doing after buying NAS) + crucial, but not sensitive data on iCloud.

19

I dunno. Synology has been actively breaking formerly supported configurations via updates (i.e. USB support for devices).

20

Basically we moved to 4 days of home office and one day in the office.

We take laptops with us home, so there would be some advantage to NAS staying in the office - copies of data will spend most of the time in different places.

My main goal is to have a shared space to reach for needed documents whilst working from home. There are multiple occasions when I need to call my colleague for him to send me some data that only he possesses.

Backups are additional advantage that would come with NAS + totally on top of that the option to run some scrapers on NAS.

Our main focus is easy of use.