Andresen Digital enables efficient, remote collaboration with hybrid storage from Synology

With employees around the world often working together on projects, Andresen needed a way to ensure data was consistent between company locations while also making sure employees working remotely always had access to up-to-date work files. It was especially important to prevent editing conflicts when a group of colleagues worked together on a single file using third-party tools.

With Andresen's clients highly concerned about data security, the solution would need to offer strong protection against unauthorized access, as well as granular and powerful access permissions management. Built-in data protection was another requirement, to ensure no work in progress would be lost.

Synology SA series dual-controller rackmount servers were deployed at Andresen's Santa Monica, San Francisco, and Warsaw offices to act as central file servers while remote editors were equipped with compact Synology DS220+ or DS923+ desktop servers to provide fast local file access during projects.

To ensure all employees working on a project would have access to the latest project files and to prevent version conflicts, Synology Hybrid Share is used as a multi-site syncing solution. After mounting the same Hybrid Share Folder on their local devices, collaborators become part of the same namespace and can be certain they are always working on the correct files.

The company uses Azure Active Directory to manage users and devices worldwide and has added all Synology solutions to the same domain. This allows administrators to manage all device, folder, and file access permissions centrally from headquarters using access control lists (ACL), even while syncing through the cloud.

To protect work in progress, Andresen leverages Hybrid Share's built-in snapshot feature to create daily point-in-time versions of files currently being edited. In case of data loss or accidental modification, admins can browse through multiple versions using the web-based C2 Storage Explorer to retrieve historical copies of individual files, ensuring no more than one day's worth of edits will be lost in case of calamity.

Synology provides Andresen with a scalable hybrid storage solution to accommodate the company's rapid growth. Meanwhile, as the company recruits talent around the world, Hybrid Share's global, single namespace enables collaboration and seamless data sharing across multiple locations.

Thanks to Hybrid Share's local caching of frequently accessed or pinned files, each collaborator on a project can access the files they work on at local LAN speeds while at the same time being sure they will not fall out of sync with other workers on the project. This means no more lost productivity due to bandwidth constraints or complicated version management.

Implementing both Synology hardware and Hybrid Share was easy because of Windows AD integration, which allows for the use of existing accounts and management tools. Central administration also helps Andresen save time on permissions management and other daily tasks.