EDS Implements Solution Utilizing Buffalo TeraStation NAS

Enterprise Data Solutions (EDS) based in the Midlands, UK provide SME companies with a professional, IT system supply, support and maintenance service. These solutions that EDS supplies include Buffalo Technology (UK), Ltd.‘s products to meet the requirements and demands of SMEs.
 
EDS created solutions for both Robell Control Systems Ltd and Hawkins & Wilson; both had similar business requirements and the need for continual availability of data.
 
Robell Control Systems Ltd provides heating ventilation control systems, environmental and air conditioning controls to hospitals, banks and schools among others and has a large amount of customer data to store and have access to.

 
Hawkins and Wilson is a private dental practice with hundreds of patient records, which are crucial to customer service and patient care.

 
Challenge
Robell Control Systems Ltd has a peer to peer network and needed to centralise all customer records with added data redundancy. It also required a way to restrict access to data and back it up from one location allowing for simpler management.
 
Hawkins and Wilson required a solution which minimised downtime due to any possible IT failure. Before consultation from EDS, the dental practice was storing all patient data on one main computer which broke down and meant that data was unavailable for four days.
 
Gemma Prange Receptionist at Hawkins & Wilson, said: "Although we had backups of our data we could not access some of them so we needed to find a solution that was reliable and would minimise downtime but was not overly expensive."
 
Solution
For both companies, EDS implemented a solution utilising Buffalo’s TeraStation. The TeraStation is a NAS offering 2-8 terabytes of data. Both companies had a TeraStation Pro implemented (recently upgraded to the TeraStation III) which has 4 hard drives for data redundancy purposes and offers hot swap functionality. This means, if a drive does fail, the product automatically powers down the faulty drive, enabling users to remove and replace without losing any data, or experiencing down time.
 
Gemma says: "This solution solved the biggest problem for us as it meant we would have very little downtime so we could carry on working. If the main drive failed we would automatically start to access our data from the mirrored drive."
 
The replication function within the TeraSation III allows the connection of a second TeraStation via the second LAN port and replicates the data to improve reliability, fault tolerance and accessibility.

Robell Control Systems Ltd took advantage of the replication functionality by installing a TeraStation Duo alongside the existing TeraStation III to replicate data. The business needed its essential data to be available on a second device should something happen to the original device.
 
Howard Dickinson, Director at Robell Systems Ltd says: "We could set the Duo unit to constantly replicate our data with changes on the TeraStation III so if the main TeraStation failed we could quickly change cables around and access the duo unit. This would have an identical copy of our data as the main unit at the time of the main unit failing."
 
Both companies were aware of the costs in finding a suitable solution for their business needs and had seen price points above their budgets. However, the TeraStation itself is reasonably priced and can often be plugged in and forgotten about once installed as it requires little maintenance, avoiding outsourced IT support costs. The TeraStation solution is not only cheaper than installing a server with backup devices but also less complicated to administer. Robell Systems Ltd and Hawkins and Wilson now have devices with automatic backups, remote access and the ability to add hard drives and take them away.
 
Gemma says: "The solution seemed to meet all of our requirements at the time and having seen the prices of similar products, we expected the TeraStation solution to be fairly expensive. When we received the EDS quotation to supply, install and configure this solution for less than a thousand pounds, we were pleasantly surprised."

Howard says: "As always Enterprise Data came up with a solution at a cost effective price and we implemented the replication solution in June last year."
 
Business benefits
The main business benefits for both companies have been the reduction of downtime, cost efficiency and the availability of data backup features.
 
Howard says: "We now have much better management – all users have access to the same document leading to increased productivity. Our backup scenarios are more resilient meaning we lose virtually no time because of data access issues. We now have full confidence that should something fail within the hardware, we will recover data very quickly."
 
Gemma says: "Since the TeraStation has been installed, we have had experienced minimal downtime due to equipment failure. We have only experienced one hard drive failure on our first TeraStation but we lost no data and the surgeries were still operational during this time. Our backup procedures are now more robust, this solution has laid the foundation which allowing us to improve our IT infrastructure with minimal disruption."