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Follow us on TwitterCreative Concepts Engineering Finds Value, Peace of Mind, With Synology DiskStation 
Creative Concepts Engineering: State-of-the-Art Engineering Consulting
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CCE creates large AutoCAD files they share using their DS209.
The Company
Creative Concepts Engineering, Inc. provides state-of-the-art integrated and coordinated mechanical, electrical, and plumbing consulting services. Based in Santa Clarita, CA, Creative Concepts provides consulting services to a wide range of projects including high tech laboratories, academic facilities, imaging facilities, data centers, commercial, institutional and industrial facilities.
The Challenge
Whether interacting with the AutoCAD files they create in-house or a design from a partner firm, CCE must store, manage, and share massive files on a daily basis. "We are a consulting engineering company and have large file needs to support our AutoCAD and marketing efforts (photos, graphics and presentations), accounting, etc. as well as file sharing with our clients and other consultants we coordinate with," said Clay Calhoun, President of CCE.
While supporting the offices large files and sharing needs, the 5 person business without a dedicated IT staff needed a storage solution that was intuitive to implement, “We have used another NAS product and found it was difficult to set up, extremely finicky in the available drives that are compatible, noisy, and for our wireless laptops we had a lot of drop-out issues,” said Calhoun.
The Solution
The Synology DS209 delivered for CCE.
Implemented as a central file server and backup/archive target, the DS209 was chosen for its speed, reliability, ease-of-setup, feature set, and quiet operation. More than a backup target and file server, CCE also uses the built-in FTP capability of Disk Station Manager 2.1 to share large files with clients quickly and easily.
"Setup was very quick and we spend almost no time 'maintaining' the system. It has also helped us centralize our files and eliminate duplicate copies (very dangerous in our line of work), and streamlined the staff’s training on how and where to store/access project related files," said Calhoun. The DS209 proves to be a valuable asset to CCE, as they are able to save both time and money while running their business more efficiently.
Calhoun configured RAID 1 (drive mirroring) in the DS209. Using two 1 terabyte drives it was easily configured to perform weekly and monthly backups of every computer in the office which in turn copied the data to external USB drives that are stored off-site. By securing CCE’s data, he has provided his employees peace of mind knowing work, time, and consequently money, will not be lost to drive failure or other disastrous events.
The DS209 is a member of the corporate workgroup series of Synology NAS, which provide an ideal mix of affordability, features, and performance to any small business looking to improve productivity and increase efficiencies.
“In a start-up company, the owner ends up wearing many of the hats beyond the engineering associated with the consultancy,” said Calhoun. As is the case for most small businesses, CCE does not have a dedicated IT staff, so the pre-sales and support elements are all the more important. Synology provides 24/7 email support, phone support based in Seattle, wiki, FAQ, and an active user community forum to help answer questions as quickly as possible. "Synology quickly responded to our questions and assisted us in the selection of a product that met our performance needs and that was cost effective."
"We have been very happy and are enthusiastic about the DS209," said Calhoun. With assurance their data is secure, the ability to share files quickly and easily both locally and over the internet, and doing so with an easy-to-use interface helps CCE save time and money while providing quality service to their clients. Working more efficiently and cost-effectively helps to give CCE the competitive advantage every business strives to achieve.