Designing Network-Attached Storage

Architecture for Small and Medium Enterprise

Applications

Andy Shui-Yu Lai1(&) and Anson Man-Sing Ma2

1
Faculty of Science and Technology,
Technological and Higher Education Institute, Tsing Yi, Hong Kong
andylai@vtc.edu.hk
2
Department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies,
University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
ansonma1993@gmail.com

Abstract. The Network Attached Storage (NAS) embraces the fascinating

features of the Cross-platform, Web Hosting, File Sharing, Cloud Service,
Email, Security Control and Multimedia technologies. Currently, NAS is clas-
sified as two types, Storage NAS and Platform NAS. The research of this paper
focuses on Platform NAS and realizes the mechanical properties and perfor-
mance of Platform NAS to effectively develop the system architecture for Small
and Medium Enterprise (SME) businesses. At present, the applications of
Platform NAS technology are still not fully unveiled. The research of this paper,
from the business perspective, illustrates a new business operational dimension
for SME that steeply cuts down the operational costs of hardware and software
required by most SME businesses. From the technical perspective, the research
is to experimentally reveal the advantages of NAS in the aspects of web hosting,
file sharing, cloud services, email server, certified security and surveillance
controls, and multimedia technologies, which are essential to SME. The results
and evaluation of the paper demonstrate the real world and practical business
cases under the NAS server, in which it significantly shows the contribution of
the software architecture development, the amortization of the affordable busi-
ness costs, and the provision of the reasonable and flexible operational security
for SME sectors in the commercial cities in developing countries such as Hong
Kong in Asia.

Keywords: Network Attached Storage
SME business applications

Architectural design
Web and mobile technology

1 Introduction

Most of developing countries and cities like Hong Kong in Asia are becoming
business-oriented cities. It has been found that, from statistics, the Small and Medium
Enterprises (SME) accounts in Hong Kong have reached over 98% of the total business
units [1]. Business applications of SME using a dedicated server service or cloud
computing to uphold the secure and reliable services for business operation have been

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018

J. J. Park et al. (eds.), Advances in Computer Science
and Ubiquitous Computing, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 474,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7605-3_45
 Designing Network-Attached Storage Architecture 275

recognized and perceived neither cost-effective nor affordable by most SMEs because
of high maintenance fee or service charges. According to the Report of Trade and
Industry Department of Hong Kong in 2006, Hong Kong had approximately 270
thousand SMEs not including the rapidly increasing demand of online shopping and
marketing services [1]. The SMEs inevitably demanded for the affordable secure and
small scale servers for hosting their business and internal office data sharing and
networking services [2]. Network Attached Storage (NAS) offers comparatively very
low hardware cost and can be easily operated and more efficient in operating in the
small and medium-sized business environment [3]. It has been observed that NAS has
been gaining general acceptance these years, because it can be managed easily and files
shared among many internal and external clients, which can also be run on different
operating systems [4, 5]. Currently, NAS is classified as two types, Storage NAS and
Platform NAS. The research of this paper focuses on Platform NAS which is suitable
for setting up a general, small and scalable server and it is embedded with its own
Linux Operating System and empowered with the servers’ hardware.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Sect. 2 presents the architectural
design of an SME business web application under NAS. Section 3 describes the design
and implementation of Web Application with the consideration of web hosting, file
sharing, cloud services, email server, certificated security and surveillance controls, and
multimedia technologies, which are essential to SME. Section 4 presents the detailed
system functionalities using class diagrams and sequential diagrams in object-oriented
approach. Section 5 we conclude with a note on the current status of the project.

2 System Architecture

The increasing specialization of NAS systems may embed much of the file system into
storage devices. For users, it is increasingly worthwhile to investigate networked
storage core and emerging technologies. Moreover, the rapid growth of e-commerce,
with its huge global customer base and easy-to-use online transactions, has introduced
new market requirements for SME, including burst, unpredictable spurts in storage
capacity [4]. With NAS, backup can be made convenient and also simplifies storage
management by centralizing storage under a consolidated manager interface that is
increasingly Web-based [6]. Typically NAS architecture provides consolidation, rapid
deployment and central management, more convenient backup and high availability
[7]. Additionally, NAS provides fascinating features SME such as web hosting, file
sharing, cloud services, email server, certificated security and surveillance controls, and
multimedia technologies [8].
Figure 1 shows NAS System Architecture embraced with diversified services
including web hosting, file sharing, cloud services, email server, certificated security
and surveillance controls, and multimedia technologies, which are the essential SME
services required. The details are described as below:
276 A. S.-Y. Lai and A. M.-S. Ma

Fig. 1. NAS System Architecture empowered with the Embedded Services

• Web Hosting - The NAS supports to host the web site with PHP language and
connecting with its own MYSQL Database Server. The web application supports
the business functions which connect to database and get the information back to
display or send the emails via the NAS provided Email Server for customer reply
service. The web application also provides administrative interfaces for the admin
staff of the companies.
• Surveillance Control - The NAS provides the surveillance service by connecting
the IP cam to do the property security control. It records and monitors the sur-
rounding and its video will be stored in the NAS storage device.
• Backup Service - The NAS offers the PC backup services with the cloud setting
and local hard disk storage as well. The service is mainly for the system and
application data backup.
• FTP File Sharing - The NAS supports the FTP service to sharing the file in the
internet such service can used by the staff and customers. It provides basic FTP file
sharing pages in the web format.
• Email Service - The NAS provides email server to support the email service to the
staff for receiving the customer replies and business emails. The Email Server pro-
vides the auto email reply service for admin staff to handle the customer services.
• Database Service - The NAS provides the Database service with MariaDB which is
a community-developed fork of the MySQL relational database management sys-
tem (MariaDB, 2015).
• Cloud Service - The NAS offers Cloud Service to let the staff share the files among
themselves in NAS on multi-platforms including the Windows PC, Mac and Mobile
Device such as IOS and Android. The staff can share the NAS cloud files with other
public cloud such as Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive.
 Designing Network-Attached Storage Architecture 277

Figure 2 presents the SME business applications on NAS Server which provides
the Web Hosting service called Web Station, SQL Database Server and Email Server.
The web pages hosted in the Web Station provides the web on-line services to cus-
tomers and sends emails to the appropriate application administrative staff according to
the requests given. Furthermore, there are administrative web pages for staff to manage
the administration services.

Fig. 2. SME Business Applications on NAS System Architecture

File sharing and management functions and email management functions are also
provided to staff with the supporting NAS Service Interfaces [9]. In addition, the staff
have the right to install a specific software framework or mobile application to connect
to the private cloud operated by the NAS and, simultaneously, allows users sharing
their files to other public cloud.
NAS goes with a monitoring Web Interface for the Surveillance Station which is a
security control service and can be managed by a designated staff in the company to
monitor the security control. Moreover, NAS provides a powerful mobile app for the
staff to connect with the surveillance service and real-time monitor via internet with an
IP cam for remote security control [10, 11].
Figure 2 presents the NAS System Architecture embraced with diversified services
including web hosting, file sharing, cloud services, email server, certificated security
and surveillance controls, and multimedia technologies, which are the essential SME
services required. It has been found that the total cost of the NAS architecture with IP
Cam [11] used in this study for basic and typical SMEs is strived to a very minimal of
HKD $1,600 and is approximately USD $250 which is affordable to most SME in
developing countries and cities.
278 A. S.-Y. Lai and A. M.-S. Ma

3 Design of E-Book Shopping Web Application

E-Book Web application has been designed and implemented to demonstrate all ser-
vices provided by the NAS architecture. First of all, the web page service allows staff
and customers to register into the system for them to access the advanced functions
such as placing the product order and checking out payment, the system has the
payment gateway for payment process if the gateway installed. The order requests are
then checked with the database for transaction and stock level updates and shows the
results to users. Furthermore, the web site provides the product searching function and
shopping cart function for users to ease the shopping experience of customers.
Figure 3 presents an E-Book Shopping Web Application on NAS Server, which
consists of membership registration, product searching, shopping cart and product
ordering, system administration, and email services. It has been observed that they are
the functions required by SMEs currently in businesses.

Fig. 3. E-Book Shopping Web Application with NAS Server

Users can view their profiles or edit the details of their accounts after logged into
the system. Customers can pick and add products to their shopping carts. For the
administrative users, they can add a new product and edit the product information after
logged in with administrative role in system. Moreover, the customers or web site
visitors can use the online customer services to send their emails to the administrative
staff for their on-line enquiries through email accounts provided by the NAS Email
Server and, besides, NAS Email Server can be set up with automatically replying
emails to confirm the reception of the enquiries to the senders.
 Designing Network-Attached Storage Architecture 279

4 Concluding Remark

In this paper, we presented a typical e-shopping web application developed on a

Network-attached Storage (NAS) architecture. The research of this paper focuses on
Platform NAS and realizes the mechanical properties and performance of Plat-
form NAS to effectively develop the system architecture for SME. Storage systems are
becoming the dominant investment in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME). This
paper, from the business perspective, illustrates a new business operational dimension
for SME that steeply cuts down the operational costs of hardware required by SME
businesses. From the technical perspective, the research is to experimentally reveal the
advantages of NAS in the aspects of web hosting, file sharing, cloud services, email
server, certified security and surveillance controls, and multimedia technologies, which
are essential to SME. The implementation and results of the paper demonstrate the real
world business cases under the NAS server, in which it significantly illustrates the
contribution of using NSA for the software architecture development, the amortization
of the affordable business costs, and the provision of the reasonable and flexible
operational security for SME sectors. This paper has addressed network storage
technology to overcome data integrity, data sharing, and complexity of systems spread
across a network in SME.

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