Case study / Professional services / Legal sector
Secure law firm data storage with fast disaster recovery
How E&C cut recovery time to 20 minutes with zero downtime
E&C / Malaysia / 2 weeks
Overview
The client.
E&C is a mid-sized law firm in Malaysia with a growing team of attorneys and support staff. Client files are the firm’s most sensitive asset, and the old storage setup couldn’t keep up. E&C needed a system that kept data secure and accessible, with backups it could count on.
Note: To protect client confidentiality, we’ve given this law firm a fictional name. The challenges and solutions are real; only identifying details have changed.
01 ▪ Context
The challenge.
- 01
Fragmented storage
Files lived across PCs, email attachments, and external drives. Finding the right version, let alone sharing it with a colleague, took longer than it should have.
- 02
Downtime risks
The old setup risked outages during time-sensitive cases, putting deadlines and billable hours on the line.
- 03
Security gaps
Confidential client data had no real safeguards, leaving the firm exposed to breaches and compliance issues.
- 04
No backup or recovery
There was no backup plan and no way to recover from ransomware or an accidental deletion.
02 ▪ Approach
The solution.
We built E&C a private-cloud system on Synology NAS, sized for a growing law firm. It gave the firm full control of its own data, without renting space from a public cloud provider.
- 01
Always-on access
The NAS became E&C’s central storage hub, fast enough for the whole team to work from at once. We set it up with RAID redundancy, so a single drive failure couldn’t take the system down.
- 02
Disaster recovery
Using Synology’s Active Backup for Business, we set up automatic replication of client data to a secure offsite location. If the primary system ever goes down, E&C has a tested, working recovery plan.
System
Implementation.
Synology Drive handles file management and collaboration. Staff access, sync, restore, and back up files from a desktop client, mobile app, or browser, and permissions control who can see what.
Role-based access
Cross-site sync + snapshots
The Admin Console logs activity, file sharing, and permission changes, so E&C always knows who touched what. Staff at different sites reach the same files over SMB or NFS shares, whether they’re on the local network or connecting through VPN.
Active Directory and LDAP integration keeps access control simple. Snapshot technology protects files from accidental deletion or tampering, so case data stays recoverable even when someone makes a mistake.
Technologies
- Synology NAS
- Synology Drive
- Active Backup for Business
- Active Protect Vault
- RAID
- Snapshot technology
- SMB / NFS
- Active Directory / LDAP
Outcome
Results.
E&C now runs on a business-continuity plan that has actually been tested. Downtime risk is close to zero, and staff work faster with secure remote access to files. If ransomware ever hits, the offsite backup means recovery takes about 20 minutes.
- 01
Faster access
Staff pull up files in seconds, whether they’re in the office or working remotely.
- 02
Zero downtime
Case files stay available on-site and remote, with no unplanned outages.
- 03
Full backups
Offsite backups protect case files from ransomware and accidental loss.
- 04
Future-proof
An IT setup built to grow with the firm’s headcount and caseload.
In their words
Keeping client data secure while having a business-continuity plan we could trust was our biggest worry. The new NAS and offsite backup solved it. We get instant file access with zero downtime, and we’ve stopped worrying about lost billable hours.
Ransomware doesn’t wait. Neither should your backup plan.
Talk to our team about a private-cloud setup built for law firms, before an outage costs you billable hours.