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Taming a SharePoint that buckled under project data

A 15-person geology & engineering consultancy, New Zealand

SharePoint was straining under huge survey and CAD datasets. We split the architecture so each tool did what it does best.

The challenge

The firm had pushed everything into SharePoint Online — including very large survey, geospatial and CAD datasets. Sync was slow and unreliable, storage was ballooning, and the platform was being used for something it was never built to do. Day-to-day collaboration was suffering as a result.

What we did

Rather than throw more cloud storage at the problem, we split the architecture. Collaboration, documents and the things SharePoint is genuinely good at stayed in Microsoft 365. The heavy bulk datasets moved onto a performant on-premises NAS (a Synology DS1525+), with a proper, verified backup regime around it. A clean hybrid, with each tool doing what it does best.

The result

SharePoint became fast and dependable again for everyday work. The large datasets now live on local storage built for the load, with backups that are tested rather than assumed. Storage costs came back under control, and the team stopped fighting their own file system.

What we used
Microsoft 365SharePoint OnlineSynology NASBackup & DR

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