get a nas.  we have a qnap.  synology makes some.  i think western digital, hp, and a million other people are developing them.  probably set up a vpn or something to share the files between offices.

i can't imagine not having the hard drives at your place and under your control.

Thanks. We do not have an IT person...would NAS + a VPN be fairly easy to set up?

it's easy if you know what you're doing.  probably not as easy if you don't.  is there someone that makes sure your firewall is doing the right thing?

We use it, but more or less as an ftp replacement - file upload and download speeds can vary, which may not be great for sharing larger files.

yes, we have an IT company we use just not an inhouse person

Is the only benefit to NAS over cloud storage that we have the server onsite?

You don't want just a NAS, you want versioning and back up. I run a NAS and google drive the folder....

get your it company to set it up if you're not comfortable with it.

what you might want to do is have 2 nas devices, one at each location, then have that shared as a drive at the other office.  so you would have a 'springfield' drive and a 'capital city drive,' accessible in both locations, and try to mostly keep the projects common for that city in the drive it belongs in.

the vpn would mean the other city's files are accessible to you in your network, so even if you have an xref in a drawing, it will work fine until your isp craps out.

having it on site means the data is transmitted to your computer over a gigabit router instead of over shitty internet service.  if your isp craps out, which all isp's do, you're out of business until they get it working again.  if you get slow download speeds because your isp sucks, which all isp's do, your ability to do your job suffers.  in a world where net neutrality is something that's discussed as an option rather than being the only option, you don't want to trust your isp to keep your business running.

microsoft onedrive or google or whatever else are for backups.

the VPN would rely on internet also correct? so still depending on shitty internet

thanks so much for the tips

part of our problem is we are so small both locations work on all projects....so we all need access to everything

microsoft has come up with something called "team sites" that is designed to share data through the cloud....but not sure if it would be appropriate for an architecture office

check the terms for any third party storage of your work products. make sure that your firm retains full ownership and rights to anything stored with third parties. keep in mind that terms change over the years.

other things to consider are security and privacy.

free, although enticing, may not be the best choice.

yes rudbeckia, the vpn would depend on the internet

but if things go to crap, you would be able to run files at least one location (if you have 2 nas's, you would be able to run files at both, but only the ones local to that office), thus only half as shitty.  half as shitty means you don't shut down, which can be kind of a big deal sometimes.  also, if things really went to crap, you could physically pick up the drive and plug it in somewhere else.

thanks for all the info

good point urbanity on the security and privacy

With the onedrive "Team Sites" thing everything is synced local to your computer...meaning if no internet or things go to crap we have all  in both locations

the computers are a mirror image of the info in the cloud, so everything is local yet stored in cloud so access to everything all the time........but i cant seem to find a firm using it....so im sure there is a reason for that or maybe its just too new

thanks again for the help