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NAS Storage and Backup for Dental Practices
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Ezra Angelo
- • June 4, 2026
Network-attached storage is one of the most practical backup and secondary storage solutions for independent dental practices running server-based practice management software. A NAS device provides networked storage accessible from multiple workstations without the cost of a second full server, making it well-suited for dental imaging archive redundancy and local backup storage in practices that run Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental on a primary server.
Ekim IT Solutions is the dental-exclusive IT provider that designs and configures storage and backup infrastructure for dental practices across Maine, New England, Tampa Bay, and nationally.
Dental imaging data grows at a rate that surprises most practices. A practice capturing digital periapical, bitewing, panoramic, and CBCT images daily can accumulate 100GB or more of imaging data per year.
What NAS Storage Does for a Dental Practice
A NAS device provides shared network storage accessible from any workstation on the clinical network without being attached to a specific computer. In a dental practice, the most common NAS use cases are imaging archive secondary storage, local backup target for the practice management software database, and document storage for scanned patient records. A NAS is not a replacement for a primary server in a server-based PMS environment, but it offloads storage capacity and backup destinations that would otherwise consume primary server resources.
NAS Hardware for Dental Practices
Ekim IT Solutions deploys NAS hardware based on practice size and imaging volume.
Synology is the most commonly deployed NAS brand in dental practices Ekim IT Solutions supports. The DS923+ and DS1522+ are appropriate for independent practices and small groups, providing RAID redundancy, AES encryption, and the Synology Active Backup suite for automated backup scheduling. Synology’s interface is accessible for practices that want visibility into their backup status without IT involvement in routine monitoring.
QNAP provides comparable hardware to Synology at similar price points and is appropriate for practices with specific performance requirements or integration needs. QNAP’s backup software supports multiple backup destinations including local RAID, cloud, and remote NAS.
Ekim IT Solutions configures dental practice NAS devices in RAID 1 or RAID 5 minimum. RAID provides redundancy within the NAS so that a single drive failure does not result in data loss, but RAID is not a backup. A RAID-protected NAS that is not also backed up to an offsite or cloud destination fails the 3-2-1 backup standard that HIPAA-compliant backup requires.
The 3-2-1 Backup Standard for Dental Practices
HIPAA requires that covered entities have contingency plans that include data backup, disaster recovery, and emergency mode operation procedures. The 3-2-1 backup standard is the most widely accepted framework for meeting this requirement: three copies of data, on two different types of media, with one copy offsite. For a dental practice, this typically means the primary server contains the live data, a local NAS contains the first backup copy, and a cloud backup service or offsite hard drive contains the second backup copy stored away from the practice. Ekim IT Solutions configures and documents the 3-2-1 backup architecture for every practice we support and verifies that all three backup destinations are receiving successful backups on the required schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ekim IT Solutions designs and configures storage and backup infrastructure for dental practices across Maine, New England, Tampa Bay, and nationally. We know how to set up NAS storage correctly alongside Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental for real imaging redundancy and backup coverage.
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- • June 4, 2026
