“Replacing the Windows server with the QNAP TVS-463 NAS didn’t result in any kind of compromise, the opposite actually – there were only gains: efficiency, security, ease of management, energy cost reduction and greater flexibility and future growth.”
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António Eduardo Marques, CEO of AEMpress
AEMpress is a communications and public relations agency specializing in the consumer electronics and Information Technology markets. Since its inception in 2007 the company has always focused on technology to best serve its clients, seeking solutions capable of optimizing its resources so as to offer more competitive services.
AEMpress is a boutique communications and public relations (PR) agency that specializes in the needs of technology-based companies, specifically consumer electronics and IT.
Operating in a highly-competitive sector, AEMpress focuses on technology from the very start to remain ahead of the competition and to offer high-quality services at competitive prices.
One method to achieve this was through the deployment of a Windows server that the company used mostly for sharing information, backing up data, and remote access.
However, the server’s growing management and maintenance requirements, coupled with the company ceasing the use of client-server applications and the reduced flexibility in storage capacity expansion due to increased numbers of workstations (five desktops and just as many notebooks) led to a rethink of the company’s IT infrastructure options.
After considering several possibilities, including continued investment in the Windows server’s capacity, AEMpress decided to retire the server and instead deploy a NAS, in this case a QNAP TVS-463.
The 4-bay TVS-463 uses an AMD quad-core processor with 8GB RAM that provides both high performance and several upgrade options. AEMpress required a solution that could grow alongside their business, and the TVS-463 provides several options, including storage expansion up to 160TB,10GbE network expansion, and the ability to upgrade the RAM to 16GB.
António Eduardo Marques, the CEO of AEMpress who also manages the IT infrastructure, says that “the QNAP TVS-463 is very easy to install and was configured and ready to use in our gigabit network, with shared folders and respective permissions, in about half an hour”.
AEMpress equipped the QNAP TVS-463 with four 4TB disks and configured them in RAID 6 for a total of 8TB of usable storage. With a less-powerful NAS, there can be a significant performance penalty in write operations under RAID 6 - something which does not affect the TVS-463: “It’s a very powerful machine, and the read and write operations feel like they’re being done in a local disk, such is its speed”, explains António Eduardo Marques.
The QNAP TVS-463 can be used under several backup scenarios, but AEMpress opted for a push solution (from the clients to the NAS) instead of a pull solution: using Windows 10’s File History feature, configured to take a snapshot of each user’s main work files every 10 minutes and keeping backups for up to 6 months.
“The TVS-463 comes with powerful and free backup tools, such as Hybrid Backup Sync”, says the CEO of AEMpress, “but for our needs, Windows 10’s File History – which is similar in functionality to Apple’s Time Machine – fits perfectly and has the benefit of allowing users to recover data without relying on anyone else.”
Using the built-in features of the TVS-463, a daily backup of the NAS shared folders is synced to the low-cost Amazon S3 storage service.
One of the challenges faced by AEMpress was remotely accessing files hosted in its office, as well as allowing clients to access files using an FTP server – both of these methods could potentially create security problems when using their Windows server.
“QNAP’s remote access functionality is well implemented and allows us to use a free sub-domain under myqnapcloud.com to access the main shared resources, in a safe and simple way, including through mobile apps”, says António Eduardo Marques, adding, “the TVS-463 also includes a robust FTP service that we use to provide remote file access for our clients.”
“The replacement of the Windows server with the QNAP TVS-463 NAS didn’t result in any kind of compromise, the opposite actually – there were only gains: efficiency, security, ease of management, energy cost reduction and greater flexibility for future growth”, says the CEO of AEMpress.
The QNAP TVS-463 provided AEMpress with a high level of security for their data while allowing secure access for their staff and clients from any device or location. The TVS-463's ability to expand to meet future scenarios also meets a key requirement for AEMpress.
“I’m convinced that there are thousands of small businesses in Portugal that have the same three basic needs as AEMpress [data sharing, backup and remote access]. They think that they need a server, when a NAS would provide them with all they need and much more”, said António Eduardo Marques, adding “The worst part is that among those companies, some actually have a traditional server, with higher costs and less functionality than they could have if they chose a NAS instead. While others don’t have a server, because they decided that it’s too expensive, when they can have NAS at their disposal for just over € 200!”
“QNAP’s solution saves a lot of money every year – a reduction in costs benefits us directly and also allows us to be more competitive in the services we offer our clients”.
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