QNAP with 4x SSD (RAID5) vs. BMD Cloud Store Mini

Hi, I'm aware that not many of you have Cloud Store Mini yet, but still I would like to know your opinions.

Currently I'm working with Davinci Studio project with footage stored on my QNAP so no video data is stored on my editing machines, so it accesses directly via videos on QNAP.

Its a QNAP TVS-h1688x with four Samsung EVO 870 1TB configured as RAID5 and boosted with two 970 EVO Pro as SSD-Cache and many HDDs for archives and office stuff. The Volume for video footage (for active projects) is stored on the pool with 4x SSDs (RAID5). I have a 10GBit network here.

Until now it work fine, but I have to admit that until now I only had h.264 videos as footage. I didn't test with braw footage stored on QNAP yet.

I have two workplaces (Office and HomeOffice) and my QNAP is based at my HomeOffice. Now I'm thinking about getting a second storage for the office so I can work at home or at the office. So I'm thinking: Shall I buy another QNAP, or should I prefer BMD Cloud Store Mini. If it was out there when I bought my QNAP, I'd have prefered the Cloud Store Mini.

So now my question: Would I expect a performance rise with BMD Cloud Store Mini over QNAP? Davinci accesses the data on QNAP via Samba (so its file based) and I think there are some overheads which could reduce the performance. I don't think anyone of us will know, which protocol Cloud Store Mini is using. Samba? Proprietary Protocol, maybe a block-based instead of a file-based one? Since I think for video editing the block based access is faster than file based one.

Sure the benefit of Cloud Store is syncing over Dropbox (I'd prefer Owncloud since I own one) so I could buy two Cloud Store Minis place them at both workplaces and keep them both synced.

Your thoughts?

Best regards
Floh

Hi, I just saw that BMD Cloud Store Mini (as for Cloud store and Cloud Pod) are using SMB protocol, so I'd stay on my existing QNAP-Infrastructure for now. Still nice thing thought, maybe somewhen later.

Best regards
Floh

I dont know if there are enough technical details about BM's Cloud Store to be able to do an A vs B comparison.

QNAP you do know with its OS, hardware, and file system.

You can squeeze more performance out of your QNAP if you do iSCSI. Just be aware of the difference between iSCSI and traditional SMB share.

Hi mpetech,

thank you for your hint. Sure I know the difference between iSCSI and SMB and I have reasons for using SMB here (QNAP) since iSCSI is not suitable for multi-client-access. I wasn't sure if Cloud Store is using SMB too, also I don't know if BMD uses some "tweaks" in SMB to improve performance in usage with Davinci Resolve.

Best regards
Floh

also I don't know if BMD uses some "tweaks" in SMB to improve performance in usage with Davinci Resolve.
Floh

+1

I just set this up for someone, so I can answer. I install a lot of QNAP systems for video editors. I have great hope for the Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini, and Cloud Pod, but at this moment, it is a preliminary product - but it does work.

On the QNAP TVS-h1688X, you setup Hybrid Backup Sync to sync a folder (hopefully a folder that you have your Proxy media in) - to Dropbox. (In Dropbox, create a folder called QNAP Sync - or something like that) -
Now, at your remote location, take your BMC Cloud Store Mini, or Cloud Pod, plug it into a little 10G switch, and plug in your internet router to this switch as well, and your computers 10G Ethernet port.
The Cloud Store Mini or Cloud Pod (if you have a drive attached to it) will instantly mount on your computer (like a Mac) - you will see it in your sidebar. If you assign a static IP to the Cloud Store Mini, you can actually click on GO> Connect To Server> smb://theIPaddress and it will mount on your desktop, just like your QNAP does.
BUT - there is no login name and password. Currently Blackmagic does not allow for logins, user names, shared folders, etc. like you have on your QNAP TVS_h1688X.

So once the Cloud Store Mini is mounted on your computer, open up the Blackmagic Cloud Store Setup, click on Cloud Sync, then Dropbox Sync, then Add Sync.
Name the Sync location, and the sync Direction, and click add.
Your Dropbox account (the one that you are using for your QNAP with Hybrid Backup Sync) - will now automatically download those files to your Cloud Store Mini.

I have taken this one step further. QNAP has an App that is free called Hybrid Mount. This will mount Dropbox in your QNAP, like it's a shared folder - so it will actually appear in "Shared Folders" - where you can assign permissions to users, etc. Now once this is mounted on your computer desktop (the QNAP Dropbox sync folder) - you can just drag in some files into that folder, and it will sync to your Dropbox account. Without doing anything - you now look at your Cloud Store Mini, or Cloud Store Pod, and those files will appear (as soon as they download) on your Cloud Store Mini.

I am sure that as this product develops, the Cloud Store series will have logins, users, shared folders, and all the other junk you need for a NAS - as well as more choices (like Google Drive, Wasabi, Backblaze) in addition to Dropbox. Remember - this product just came out. I am sure it is being developed right now.

Can you do this with a 4 bay QNAP ? Sure you can, but it will cost more money, than with the Cloud Pod.

Bob

Thanks bob
Very informative

Kudos Bob, great posting and really good concept I will keep this in mind for later investment and will realise this way as you described.