10 PC Office Data Storage Recommendations
-
So I am recommending the Synology 214 to my friend/client.
What would you recommend for backups of this? Buy a second and mirror it?
I know some of you use this, so what do you do?
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
- Does anyone use encryption on this? I could see this being a nice fit for smaller shops (accountant, law firm, doctor) who need encryption. I know there is a performance drain, but I'm imagining on a Word file it's not a big issue. A huge video file might be another animal.
No. That's pretty worthless in a small, non-technical environment. How and where would they use this encryption that it would be both useful and protect anything? What do you want to encrypt against?
If it is doable, why WOULDN'T you want encryption?
Say it is a a legal office, accounting office, doctor, whatever. There's a good chance there is data on there you wouldn't want accessed if it got stolen.
-
@BRRABill said:
So I am recommending the Synology 214 to my friend/client.
What would you recommend for backups of this? Buy a second and mirror it?
I know some of you use this, so what do you do?
There are so many "it depends." First thing is... is it storage or backups going to the device?
-
@scottalanmiller said:
There are so many "it depends." First thing is... is it storage or backups going to the device?
Storage. I convinced them to stop saving to their desktops, and buy the Synology and store everything to that.
-
-
-
So if it's storage, you don't want to backup to another unit sitting right next to it.
Offsite is likely the best option. Maybe a few external drives that get rotated weekly?
-
@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
There are so many "it depends." First thing is... is it storage or backups going to the device?
Storage. I convinced them to stop saving to their desktops, and buy the Synology and store everything to that.
Okay, then mirroring is not ideal. You want an actual backup. Something that grabs the share and backs it up or runs as an app and does backups is best.
-
@DustinB3403 said:
So if it's storage, you don't want to backup to another unit sitting right next to it.
Offsite is likely the best option. Maybe a few external drives that get rotated weekly?
At least not ONLY to a device sitting right next to it. That plus something else is fine.
-
I think this device can mirror itself to an offsite device of the same type, right?
That's what I was thinking of.
They also support cloud backup of the device.
-
@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
How could it be DOABLE, though?
The device supports it?
Everything "supports" it but no one uses it because it's not useful. Picture the scenario....
If the NAS itself is encrypted, how will people access it? Will they need to log into the NAS every time it reboots and unencrypt everything before they use it? What doctor or law office could handle that task?
The problem with encryption is that it is so immensely impractical to use that it is useless. Generally speaking.
How do you make it so that they have to unencrypt things while still making it encrypt enough to protect against something real?
-
@BRRABill said:
I think this device can mirror itself to an offsite device of the same type, right?
Mirroring is replication, not backup. A deletion or corruption gets copied.
It is only a backup if it is decoupled.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
I think this device can mirror itself to an offsite device of the same type, right?
Mirroring is replication, not backup. A deletion or corruption gets copied.
It is only a backup if it is decoupled.
The device also does versioning.
I see what you mean though, that if the whole thing was corrupted, it would be an issue.
-
@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
I think this device can mirror itself to an offsite device of the same type, right?
Mirroring is replication, not backup. A deletion or corruption gets copied.
It is only a backup if it is decoupled.
The device also does versioning.
I see what you mean though, that if the whole thing was corrupted, it would be an issue.
If you have something like RSnapshots as a backup process, that would be fine. but just mirroring isn't useful.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
If the NAS itself is encrypted, how will people access it? Will they need to log into the NAS every time it reboots and unencrypt everything before they use it? What doctor or law office could handle that task?
Key on removable USB drive?
Places like doctor offices need the data at rest to be encrypted. How could you NOT do something?
-
@scottalanmiller said:
If you have something like RSnapshots as a backup process, that would be fine. but just mirroring isn't useful.
That's what I am looking to find out. I know a few people here are using this box and OS so hopefully they will chime in.
-
@BRRABill said:
Key on removable USB drive?
So.... not encrypted for all intents and purposes? How would this not be the same as taping the password to the front? In fact it would be worse, a thief wouldn't even figure out that it was encrypted.
-
@BRRABill said:
Places like doctor offices need the data at rest to be encrypted. How could you NOT do something?
No they don't. Not legally and not practically. There is no reason to be encrypting that data. And there is no reasonable means of doing it until they are large enough to have full time IT staff handling all of this stuff. No doctor's office is doing this unless they are completely hosted or have full time IT and even then... basically none do it.
-
@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
If you have something like RSnapshots as a backup process, that would be fine. but just mirroring isn't useful.
That's what I am looking to find out. I know a few people here are using this box and OS so hopefully they will chime in.
The majority use it as a backup target.
-
Taking a backup of a NAS is pretty easy if it is not large. You can just make a tarball and copy it off with a simple script.
