OK, so testing continues...

I have an Accounts Payable report that takes 29 minutes to produce with the 'approved' setup where the data is on the windows box that has the master software. However the exact same report with the data only on the NAS takes LESS THAN 2 Minutes!!! That alone is a compelling reason for this setup although the consolidation of data on a readily backed up appliance is still the real motivation.

Maybe someone who understands the architecture could chime in?
I've always assumed that there was a main installation which was essentially the gatekeeper software to make sure other users don't trip over each other, and that there was a 'thin client' type of installation on the networked workstations. If this was the case you wouldn't think that where you pointed the program to to get the data would defeat any of the processing protocols, but I don't want to do this only to discover much later that it causes problems.

Any help or thoughts welcome!