Buffalo TeraStation™ brings agility to CMR storage solutions

Computer Market Research (CMR), based in Las Vegas with an office in San Diego, is the leading provider of channel management solutions in the high-tech sector. Among its clients are Fortune 500 companies as well as various small and midsized businesses worldwide. To support a global infrastructure, the company must employ cutting-edge, reliable and secure storage technology that can be accessed at any time by multiple users at multiple locations.

As part of its lineup of various services and automated solutions, CMR collects, cleanses and houses client POS data. A lot of it. And with an abundance of active data, it’s imperative that the company have a secure backup system in place. CMR backs up and archives versions of the data and end-to-end encrypted data that doesn’t benefit from compression and deduping technology, which then leads to huge storage requirements. Enter the TeraStation™ TS51210RH — Buffalo’s flagship network attached storage (NAS) solution that securely backs up and stores large amounts of data, while offering a bevy of versatile features that streamline processes and ultimately improve performance. The TeraStation™ offers versatility, cost efficiency and durability for long-term storage of encrypted data, making it a premier solution for CMR’s expanding business and allowing it to reap its benefits well beyond data storage and backup.

From TeraStation™ III TS-RXL/R5 to TS51210RH

CMR initially implemented its storage solutions using the TeraStation™ III TS-RXL/R5 to provide 24-7 secure data storage for daily backups and server images. And although the device is now more than a decade old, it still meets the company’s needs, lending to its reliable components and durable design. However, to keep aligned with current tech trends, the company recently upgraded to the TeraStation™ TS51210RH.

The newest TeraStation™ is definitely more robust in its capabilities, with eight additional storage bays that come partially populated, iSCSI functionality, and native 10GbE ports. The additional functionality is a big boost to CMR as its clients are becoming more data-focused and collecting more data for preparation and analysis. In fact, the TeraStation TS51210RH provides the performance to meet CMR’s rising data needs and save the company both time and money, as well as affording versatility for the future as the business evolves.

More storage space

For CMR, housing large amounts of storage is key to cost-savings and bringing agility to business operations. And an upgrade to the latest TeraStation™ model brings much more storage to accommodate the company’s expanding needs. In the company’s current implementation, with 4x12TB of storage out of 12 hard drive slots filled, the TeraStation™ TS51210RH has almost three times more storage than the previous model (22 terabytes vs. 8 terabytes). And, because CMR is currently only using 4 of the 12 slots for storage, there is room for growth in the foreseeable future. More storage means CMR is ready to better accommodate its clients’ data storage and analysis requirements, which are growing at a steady pace.

(Good) Integration with Active Directory

CMR uses centralized permissions management with Active Directory. Historically, getting Active Directory to work properly with Network Attached Storage (NAS) has been bit of a bumpy ride for the CMR team. The TeraStation™ TS51210RH has simplified the implementation of Active Directory, streamlining permissions management and reducing administration chores for CMR. With the integration, users can be easily assigned permissions to groups and automatically receive correct permissions, eliminating the arduous task of the CMR team individually creating new users on the NAS.

iSCSI

The upgraded TS51210RH model can also be used as an iSCSI device, an extra added benefit for CMR’s operations. The company gets the best of both worlds with iSCSI – the accessibility, cost-savings and security of network storage solutions coupled with the control and capacity of local networks. CMR has long preferred iSCSI over Windows SMB because Microsoft has several tools that don’t utilize SMB shares but have the ability to utilize iSCSI drives. Also, iSCSI is easy to allocate and deploy, which allows it to integrate well with CMR’s existing systems including Windows, Windows Server Backup and Windows Server Failover Cluster, and Linux.

iSCSI capabilities give CMR the ability to treat the TeraStation™ storage as a local disk on a local machine, which opens up a wide variety of solutions that wouldn’t be available with just a plain network drive. This has proven to be a simple, cost-effective solution for CMR, as it requires no additional hardware and is easy for one technician to install.

10x faster speeds

Time equals money, and the latest TeraStation™ automatically backs up data in a fraction of the time as previous models. The 10 gigabit ethernet vs. the previous model’s 1 gigabit ethernet bring a definitive improvement to CMR’s efficiency, leading to positive ROI and cost-savings down the line.

Eliminating time-consuming backups yields more time for productivity for the CMR team, a benefit that is also passed along to clients. The higher speeds, which are almost 10 times faster, allow clients to quickly access high-quality data to analyze and make data-driven decisions for their own businesses. 

Faster speeds also provide CMR a constant and seamless connection with its clients who are located all over the globe. And with 10 gigabit ethernet, the company is never bothered by lagging servers and downtime when its system is being accessed simultaneously by multiple users in multiple locations.

Although CMR has the most recent TeraStation™ technology, the company is currently only utilizing 1 gigabit ethernet. The upgraded device provides a future-proof solution for the company to use higher speed as it expands to accommodate more client data.

Additional benefits of the TeraStation™ TS51210RH

As a company that provides software solutions to high-tech clients, CMR understands the importance of keeping aligned with current tech trends. And with the upgrade to the latest TeraStation™ device, CMR is able to further streamline the complexities that come with data storage and management.

The ease of installation and low maintenance of the device have been definite advantages to the CMR team. Another important element of the Buffalo TeraStation™ family of devices – the added benefit of security. In an era where cybercrime is at an all-time high, providing a safe haven for proprietary and sensitive customer data ranks high on CMR’s list of priorities. With multiple layers of physical and digital protection, CMR considers the TeraStation™ the most safe and secure data storage solution currently offered on the market.

There are several safeguards in place to protect both the device’s hardware and software features as well as data. Panel locks protect the hard drives from tampering or theft, while user authentication prevents unwanted access to hard drive data. Data protections range from anti-virus safeguards to encrypted hard drives, providing security from even the most sophisticated hackers. Throw in the ability to quickly recover data in the event of a loss or disaster, and CMR will continue to win with the TeraStation™.

The various functions and additional capabilities of the TeraStation™ TS51210RH give CMR a premier solution in meeting its clients’ increasing needs. The cost-savings and time-crunching for CMR are an added bonus. With almost three times more storage space, iSCSI functionality, seamless integration with Active Directory and speeds exponentially faster than the previous model, the TeraStation™ TS51210RH brings flexibility as well as a boost to efficiency to CMR’s ever-evolving business model.