NAS (or other) for 8 person architecture firm

[r-mm]

Hello, I run an 8 person architecture firm presently using dropbox exclusively. We are all wired to a Spectrum 200/15 broadband connection. This worked fine when we were 4 people but we are now double and regularly save 200-500mb files throughout the day. Our total storage need is approx 1.5TB today, I can see it going to 4tb in a year.

I would like a robust file sharing system and willing to pay accordingly but heavily prioritize ease of setup and backup. I'm quite addicted to dropbox. We often work remotely from the office - on laptop or iphone. Of course the peace of mind is wonderful too. In addition we sometimes have interns come in with their laptops and being able to share a single dropbox folder over Wifi is a nice way to temporarily 'expand the network'. We also send clients large presentation files via dropbox link.

My instinct is that a NAS can work for what I'd like to achieve but I would greatly appreciate advice. I'm open to a server but really feel that what we do is all about file sharing not applications, locally hosted email and so forth. I frankly don't know what virtualization and the various programs run on servers are. We have all Dell workstations on Windows 7 that I find to be reasonably priced and plenty capable/stable.

Thanks

 

[slidermike]

Have you look at Google's "G Suite"?
https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html
https://gsuite.google.com/features/

I would suggest looking there first.
You can go the NAS route of course but then you need to consider your internet upload speed which is only 15Mbps.
Thats not very fast for folks not in the same building as the NAS and frequently accessing the NAS files.

Also there is the matter of admin/maintaining the NAS hardware & software.
Its not huge mind you but it is still a thing.

I have had a couple of Synology NAS' and they are great.
Personally I would check out G Suite first and then a hardware based solution.
Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[thiggins]

A NAS can certainly do what you desire. And sync to Dropbox too. And support remote access.

But as slidermike notes, it will require some care and feeding.

QNAP, Synology and NETGEAR all support Dropbox sync, local and remote backup and remote access. But all have their quirks.

Either find a local network firm who will support what they install. Or hit the forums for any solution you're considering and check out what people are complaining about.

Good luck,