I have been task to choose the best NAS for your office. Since, I am about to start the work tomorrow before looking for any recommendation. To me I knew only two brands QNAP and Synology but not sure there hardware, support, performance, stability, recovery etc.,
Our usage or requirement what you call.
Max users : 50
concurrent users : 30
File transfer : MS Office, PDF, Mostly CAD dwg files.
Current Data : 4 TB (expected to increase 500GB a year)
So, any feedback on this topic really helpful. If you recommend a third brand I am happy to check
To be honest I never used QNAP and I have a good experience with Synology.
Budget is where to start. Then ask yourself performance, capacity, and features
Can you handle downtime at all? If so, how much? Consider Synology model with the (+) plus designation. It allows you to link two Synology boxes in a high-availability mode. This gives you failover potential between boxes.
I also consider RS models (rack mount). I also prefer the redundant power (RP) supply options, because downtime matters. So, my preference would be a model in the format of RSxxxxRP+ (all other stats being equal).
Make sure you have a good backup system. Failure of the unit is your biggest liability. It is a single-point-of-failure. The “RP” models make redundant the most common point of failure aside from the drives themselves, but losing the chassis is still a possibility. We use NAS’s like this for “non-critical” data like archives. If the building burned down and we lost them, we’d grumble, but nothing in them is critical for the business to run. It’s “luxury” data.
