Your advice needed: NAS and cloud solution for a small office

[16k_zx81]

Currently using SBS 2008, which has caused them a lot of problems, they have approached me to install a NAS and could backup.

1. NAS
Storage needs are probably less than 1tb, so I am thinking a 2x2 tb nas - 1x storage and 1x backup.

This will be accessed by 3-4 machines over a LAN.

Please recommend a suitable unit for this task. The option to upgrade storage capacity is probably a relevant consideration over time. Ability to handle user accounts and permissions would also be a useful feature.

Is there a NAS with a built in interface for Cloud storage?

2. Cloud
They are currently using MS Exchange and Outlook. I want to move them to cloud based email. I am thinking Gmail, but am also interested in Gmail business for them. Anyone with any experience of this? Would you recommend it?

Is there another system that will do cloud storage and high-quality web-based email?

I am thinking in terms of backup chain, [local machine] to [NAS] to [disk 2 and cloud]. Does this sound like a sensible idea? How would you do it, and why?

Thanks for any thoughts, suggestions, ideas. I think this should be ok for them, but am putting it out to the community as I have very little experience with NAS setups and have not migrated a business from Exchange to cloud email before. Want to do a full sanity check before submitting a quote to make sure I have covered all my bases. I dont trust my lack of experience in this area and wanted to confer with those who know more about these things than I do rather than just googling and taking a punt

Jim

 

[MattyUSA]

On home experiments I've had good experience with FreeNAS.
www . freenas . org / features

Especially chuffed with the ZFS support which allowed very fancy features for increasing volume size by dropping in more drives and its RAID features where impressive to me. Worth reading up on. Very powerful.

However I have held off using ZFS commercially since it was in beta. Now with v8 it seems to have moved out of that. Might give it a shot.

I am thinking in terms of backup chain, [local machine] to [NAS] to [disk 2 and cloud]. Does this sound like a sensible idea?

Yup. I take my local machines and back system up to network. Data is already mapped to network. Network is NAS and has RAID. It is them compressed and encrypted and moved to Amazon S3 cloud on a semi regular basis. The NAS to cloud storage connection is clunky for me. I use a separate Linux server to access the NAS and upload to Amazon S3. I know it needs looking at but have never made the time 'yet'.
Mantra for customers is "Data is not safe in one place".

Best Wishes
MattyUSA

 

[MobileTechie]

I know this isn't terribly helpful but....SBS 2008 works perfectly for thousands of small businesses covering all the things NAS and cloud email can plus a lot more at no extra cost other than that of setting it up correctly, plus no ongoing costs like there are with cloud. You can do a reinstall of it plus set up the 3-4 machines with outlook etc in 1 or 2 days tops.

There must be so many people out there who have had their SBS set up wrong who think it's rubbish. They soon change their mind when it's set up right.

 

[ProTech-MN]

I'd agree with trying to repair the SBS 2008 server before embarking on some form of replacement...

...that being said, my solution would be a NAS such as the ReadyNAS Pro series and utilize either the built-in online backup (ReadyNAS Vault) or a third party product such as JungleDisk, CrashPlan, or something similar that supports backing up network shares...

-Randy

 

[pcpickup]

I have been using FreeNas for a while at clients offices and it has been a great system......BUT

I agree with MobileTechie, If they have SBS server fixing it would be probably a great idea. SBS server when SET UP PROPERLY seems to work quite well. I have taken over a lot of account from other IT companies because the client was having major server issues and I would find the root of the problem being a goofed SBS server setup.

 

[johnrobert]

SBS for 4 computers is crazy, 2 days to setup over kill.
What about a hosted exchange service.

 

[Mick]

I guess I must be missing something, but with only three or four users, what's the problem with a plain old workgroup? (I assume they've already paid for the SBS gear, so it'd be a shame to dump it without just checking, as others have said, that it's set up correctly).

 

[krtechsolutions]

If I were you, I would ask a few questions.

1. What is the issue with the SBS setup? Are the looking to go a virtual office and get rid of their current office or do they just not like the setup? If they want to access their e-mail outside the network via outlook setup up outlook anywhere and be done with it, if they have issue connecting to the exchange server inside the network there is a network issue somewhere.

2. What do they what to backup? Just files any databases? If just files look into backblaze or crashplan pro for backups.

I agree that sbs is just over kill for the setup but if they already own it make it work for them, if they truly want to get rid of the server, look into a Windows Home Server, it will backup all workstation via a full-image backup, it will work as a NAS and it is windows so its very easy to us, then back that server up to the cloud.

-Rich

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

dHI Jim,

I'm killing time waiting to board my airplane so I have not spent much time looking but in the past I have found something like this:

http://www.evertek.com/viewpart.asp?auto=67428&cat=30

That was raid 1 ready and then just take out the 500 GB drive and install two 1.5 GB or even 2 GB drives. Also prefer USB 3 or Gigabyte Ethernet.

Cheap and easy for a small work group.

I have played with Google apps free for up to 10 users and I like it. If they do not need group ware they can use gmail with their domain, or they can use a free low cost online calendar as well.

I am experimenting with using multiple cloud sources one for word/excel type apps and another one for email and yet another for calender but seem to work very well together. The net result I am looking for is something that is almost free to end user.

I have a teared backup for my clients and we are very selective on what goes to cloud in that it takes long times to restore from many cloud backup providers. Some business to business providers do not throttle restores and would be a better solution. Still we tend only cloud backs with the very most critical files (smallest).

We do daily backups with an internal drive on the server, and then external USB we do the 2nd backup, and then cloud for those files required remotely or just needed if the whole office blows away. Most of my clients use at least 2 USB drives and alternate moving one off site on a weekly bases.

Got to go through security at the airport..write more later.