Huda Beauty

"Leveraging the Synology units, we have successfully consolidated hundreds of terabytes of valuable content in our internal cloud storage solution with seamless data transfer capabilities. This has resulted in significant improvements in workflow performance, productivity and driving cost savings by reducing dependencies on recurring cloud subscriptions. By adopting this cloud storage solution, Huda Beauty has been able to scale operations, optimize resource utilization, and enhance the overall performance of the content and marketing teams in a highly cost-efficient manner." Ryan Aldrin, Head of Technology Operations, Huda Beauty

The Company



Huda Beauty is a global beauty brand headquartered in Dubai. With over 200 employees across two offices in Dubai and two branch offices located in the US and the UK, the company ships to renowned makeup retailers worldwide.

Huda Kattan established a beauty blog and a YouTube channel, bearing the name "Huda Beauty". Over time, Huda Beauty has evolved into a prominent international brand with a broad distribution network encompassing prestigious cosmetics vendors such as Sephora, Harrods, and Selfridges. In 2013, the company launched its first collection of false eyelashes, and since then, has grown its social fan base to over 60 million followers. 

The Challenge

Huda Beauty needed a reliable and cost-effective way to store and share creative files among its remote teams, following the hybrid work model implemented due to the pandemic. Previously, the company relied on Dropbox to store, share, and collaborate on files between over 140 employees. However, as the quality and file sizes of their creative content continued to grow, they needed to scale up and upgrade their cloud package subscription. 

The high recurring fees and slow access speeds to large files caused by bandwidth congestion made the public cloud solution no longer satisfactory. Huda Beauty needed a private server alternative that could provide fast and reliable file access, scalable storage, and user-friendly features that were compatible with their existing system.

The Solution

After evaluating different solutions, Huda Beauty chose to adopt on-premises storage from Synology. They selected a highly scalable Synology SA Series rackmount unit to store hundreds of TBs of content, coupled with an expansion unit for future projects and growth. To store growing amounts of logistics data, they also deployed a powerful Synology XS+ Series server at their branch office. 

Synology software provided file access solutions to accommodate the team's hybrid work model, with Synology Drive's On-demand sync synchronizing data in employees' Windows and macOS systems to the NAS server. For onsite employees, shared folder access over FTP and SMB file sharing protocols was used to provide fast and reliable access to shared files via the local network. They also deployed Synology Cloud Sync to smoothly synchronize and back up files from their local Synology system to Dropbox. 

"Synology solutions are highly scalable and come with a user-friendly interface that is very easy to work with, even for less tech-savvy employees," said Ryan Aldrin, Head of Technology Operations. "We've been able to switch to their infrastructure without much fuss."

By adopting Synology's private server solution, Huda Beauty was able to achieve reliable local file sharing, easy remote file access, and backup to the cloud while saving on cloud subscription costs compared to their previous services. 

Recommended Models

  • SA3600
  • RS1619xs+
  • RX1217

Recommended Features

  • Reliable local file sharing over AFP, SMB and FTP
  • Easy remote file access with Synology Drive
  • Backup to the cloud with Synology Cloud Sync
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