Office File Sharing with a NAS: Replace Pen Drives and Email Attachments

In many offices the latest version of a file lives in someone's email, a pen drive or one person's laptop. A NAS gives everyone one place to work from, with the right people seeing the right folders.

What changes

• Shared folders for each team or project, available from every PC in the office
• Permissions, so accounts staff see accounts folders and others do not
• One current copy of each file, instead of copies attached to emails
• Previous versions, so an overwritten or deleted file can be brought back
• Access from outside the office through the NAS maker's app, without opening ports on the router

How it is set up

Each person gets their own account on the NAS, or the NAS joins the office's existing directory. Shared folders appear on their PCs as a drive letter, so nobody has to learn a new way of working. On a phone or laptop away from the office, the NAS maker's app gives the same folders.

Syncing laptops

Synology, QNAP and Asustor each offer a sync app that keeps a copy of chosen folders on a laptop and sends changes back to the NAS when it connects. It suits people who travel and need files offline.

Do not forget backup

Putting all files in one place makes that place important. A NAS used for file sharing still needs its own backup: snapshots on the NAS for quick undo, and a copy to another device or to cloud storage for when the NAS itself is lost.

Common questions