When one of our new clients, a real estate firm here in Massachusetts, first approached us about the Nasuni Filer, they were considering moving their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud. They don’t have a dedicated IT person, so this shift to the cloud was tremendously appealing. They wouldn’t have to worry about adding or managing disks, expanding data centers, or any of the headaches that come with handling hardware.
But the firm had a few reservations. They were particularly concerned with the potential impact on speed. If everything they did had to go over the wire, they’d spend far too much time tapping their fingers on their desks. They are a relatively small operation, in terms of total disk space required, but they regularly send large files around. They’re always emailing brochures with high-res pictures and multiple MB photos of various properties. Handling all these operations over the wire would be frustrating.
When they suggested they were interested in moving everything to the cloud, we were quick to say that we don’t do that. Then we started talking a little bit more about what Nasuni can do: how the Filer would transform a portion of their local disk space into a cache for the cloud. How they could keep the high performance and the system they’ve grown accustomed to.
They also liked the idea that they didn’t need Active Directory; the Filer can do access control without it. Everyone gets their own username and password and the system automatically routes them to the right place when they log in.
Even though we deliver strong security, this wasn’t a critical concern for the group, but they loved the idea that with the Filer, they didn’t have to manually do backup at the end of the day. Our simple disaster recovery process was a bonus too. They tested the trial version of the Filer and basically said, OK, it serves my files the way it says it will, I don’t have to worry about file growth, and I get those files back in the event of a total disaster.
They signed up for a full year and have been encouraging other local businesses to test it out too. Check out some of our other customer stories here and here. And if you haven’t tested the Filer yourself, we encourage you to download a free trial copy and try it today.