Synology Inc. - Experts & Thought Leaders

Synology Inc. has announced two additions to its enterprise-class M.2 NVMe solid-state drive line for SSD caching, and its latest generation 10/25GbE network cards to drive forward storage and networking performance on its storage solutions. New 800 GB models for the SNV3400 M.2 2280 and SNV3500 M.2 22110 NVMe SSD lines are designed to let users with larger data sets cache more data, allowing for higher and more consistent performance improvements over HDD-based arrays. Dual-port 10GbE SFP+ E10G21-F2 The dual-port 10GbE SFP+ E10G21-F2 compliments the existing lineup of high-speed NICs, while the dual-port 25GbE SFP28 E25G21-F2 provides customers with even faster 25GbE connectivity options. “Our latest NAS models are built for expansion so that they can meet our customers' future storage, caching, and connectivity needs,” said Peggy Weng, Synology Inc.’s Product Manager, adding “With this latest wave of releases, we build on that foundation to offer a solid ecosystem of first-party storage and networking options.” Supporting larger SSD cache applications “To satisfy a growing need for cost-effective but high performance and high capacity storage, we introduced our M.2 NVMe SSDs last year to specifically target cache usage," said Julien Chen, Product Manager at Synology Inc., adding “Our enterprise-class drives have been well received for their reliable performance and seamless integration with our product lineup.” Julie Chen further stated, “Our two new, higher-capacity models announced today will allow users with bigger pools of hot data to better reap the benefits of the NVMe SSD cache, maximising the performance an HDD array can output in a very economical way.” SNV3000 series SSD Synology SNV3000 series SSD is designed to support heavy caching applications Synology SNV3000 series SSD is designed to support heavy caching applications where data integrity is of paramount importance, including virtualisation, high-traffic volume database storage, and AI and HPC projects. With over 205,000/40,000 4K maximum random read/write IOPS and a 500 TBW endurance rating, the SNV3000 series consistently delivers fast caching and effectively reduces latency in scenarios from multimedia post-production to database applications. Full integration with DiskStation Manager Full integration with Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) enables lifetime analytics for each SNV3000 series unit based on actual workloads. Timely notifications when replacement is recommended help users make the most out of each drive's lifespan. “With more businesses relying on data-intensive applications, we see a consistent need for systems capable of handling higher data throughput,” said Peggy Weng, adding “That's why we are introducing 25GbE NICs to our lineup.” E10G21-F2 and E25G21-F2 dual-port network cards The E10G21-F2 and E25G21-F2 dual-port network cards boost throughput and performance of compatible Synology systems for bandwidth-heavy tasks such as distributed computing, AI, or big data applications, backing up large numbers of devices, or supporting more simultaneous users for centralised file or block storage applications. The E25G21-F2 is backward-compatible with 10GbE SFP+ equipment, reducing installation and implementation costs in hybrid networks. The E10G21-F2, E25G21-F2, SNV3400-800G, and SNV3500-800G are available in the market from Synology resellers globally.

Synology HAT5300 is designed to tackle demanding, high-volume workloads. Optimised specifically for Synology storage solutions, its design enables high sequential throughput, maximising the number of concurrent clients the system can sustain. HAT5300 series drives are engineered for maximum dependability, passing over 300,000 hours of validation, and are backed by Synology's 5-year limited warranty. Highlights  Enterprise Reliability and Durability - For demanding 24/7 environments, rated for 2.5 million hours MTTF and up to 550 TB per year workloads Persistent Write Cache Technology - Minimises the chance of data corruption in the event of sudden power loss Better Together - Firmware and DiskStation Manager (DSM) optimisations improve multi-client seq. read performance by up to 23% One-stop Update - Get automatic firmware updates together through DSM updates, reducing the need for additional maintenance sessions For Synology, by Synology - Stringent validation and up to 300,000 hours of tests ensures maximum reliability in Synology systems Higher sequential read performance Synology HAT5300 drives are engineered to provide fast and dependable performance, even for a large number of clients. Firmware and software collaborate to ensure maximum performance, delivering over 23% higher sequential read performance than similar capacity drives1. HAT5300 provides outstanding performance for large-scale video surveillance, multimedia post-production, and enterprise file server environments. Designed with expertise in storage systems, HAT5300 series drives are backed by a 2.5 million hour MTTF rating, workload support of 550 TB per year, and persistent write cache technology. Over 300,000 hours of compatibility and stress testing ensure that the HAT5300 can continuously operate even under extreme workloads with the company’s NAS and IP SAN lineup. Simplified maintenance Simplify IT infrastructure planning requirements by getting support for the entire system from Synology Combined with data protection solutions running on Synology systems, the user can confidently depend on the data 24/7 using HAT5300 series drives. DSM updates will ensure that compatible Synology drives will be updated together with the operating system. This reduces the number of maintenance sessions IT teams need to schedule while also increasing the entire system's service availability. Simplify IT infrastructure planning requirements by getting support for the entire system from Synology. Performance testing was conducted by Synology using 12 drives on an SA3600, configured using RAID 5, against similar class drives (Enterprise) with IOMeter (64KB blocks). Results are for reference only. Actual performance may vary depending on workload, testing methods, and how devices and software are configured. Definition of capacity is the hard drives define a terabyte (TB) as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Available storage capacity A computer operating system, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1GB = 230 = 1,073,741,824 bytes and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software, and operating system. Actual formatted capacity may vary. "3.5-inch" is the form factor of HDDs. It does not indicate the drive's physical size. A mebibyte (MiB) means 220 bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes. MB/s is 106 bytes. Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) is not a guarantee or estimate of product life; it is a statistical value related to mean failure rates for a large number of products which may not accurately reflect actual operation. Actual operating life of the product may be different from the MTTF. Workload is defined as the amount of data written, read, or verified by commands from the host system.

Synology Inc., globally renowned high-performance, reliable, versatile, and environmentally-friendly NAS servers and storage solutions firm, has announced the launch of the RackStation RS1221+ and RS1221RP+ (redundant power) 2U 8-bay rackmounted storage servers, which have been specially built to deliver high performance in a space-efficient and cost-effective manner. “The RackStation RS1221+ and RP+ storage server units are designed for small businesses, and indeed, ‘small’ they are,” said Michael Wang, Product Manager at Synology, Inc. Michael adds, “These units not only pack in a huge leap forward in performance, but do it at a modest depth for 2U units in their class. What's more, for businesses that require higher availability, the RP+ version is equipped with dual power supplies for redundancy and added reliability.” RackStation RS1221+ and RS1221RP+ storage servers The new RackStation series units deliver 3.6X higher compute performance and 3.8X random read IOPS at 108K The RS1221+ and RS1221RP+ rackmounted storage servers are the first RackStation series units built around the AMD Ryzen V1500B processor. Compared to their predecessor, the new RackStation series units deliver 3.6X higher compute performance, 3.8X random read IOPS at 108K, and 2.3x higher sequential write performance at 1,147 MB/s. This basically translates to faster performance in data management and backup tasks, while also allowing businesses to scale to higher numbers of concurrent users and services, and the same time maintain a high performance output. Compact servers for space-sensitive deployments At only 306.6 mm and 407.5 mm deep (including front server handles), the RackStation RS1221+ and RS1221RP+ storage servers are less than half the depth of standard 2U rackmounted devices, making them ideal for smaller rackmount enclosures, such as wall mounted cabinets, or two-post racks (RS1221+ only), where space is at a premium. The RackStation RS1221+ and RP+ storage server units are configured with 4 GB of DDR4 ECC memory by default, upgradable to 32 GB. Its PCIe 3.0 slot enables easy upgrading to 10GbE with a compatible NIC, or to add super-fast NVMe cache via Synology M.2 cards and Synology SVN3000 series SSDs. These rackmounted server units can scale to 12 drive bays using an RX418 expansion unit and compatible drives. For businesses wanting extended support, its 3-year limited warranty and can be extended to 5 years. Efficient data management and protection Synology DSM enables backup of IT infrastructure with the Synology Active Backup suite Synology Diskstation Manager (DSM), Synology's unified operating system, simplifies difficult and cumbersome data management processes while still giving users ample control over decisions that matter. Synology DSM enables backup of IT infrastructure with the Synology Active Backup suite and hosting of on-premises private cloud with Synology Drive, virtual machines with Virtual Machine Manager, mail servers with MailPlus, and other SaaS services. Global availability RS1221+ and RS1221RP+ are available from Synology resellers globally. The predecessor, the RS1219+ contains an Intel Atom C2538 processor. Performance figures are achieved in the Synology lab with optimized network and configuration settings. Actual performance could vary in different environments. Comparison done against prior-generation RS1219+. Check compatibility list for compatible Network Interface Cards. 2 SSD cache can be enabled using the E10M20-T1 and M2D20 M.2 SSD adapter cards with Synology SNV3500 or SNV3400 NVMe SSDs. SSD caching is also supported via SFF (2.5") SSDs. The capacity of the RS1221+ and RS1221RP+ can be expanded using a Synology RX418 expansion unit, purchased separately. Supports LFF (3.5 inch) or SFF (2.5 inch) SATA drives. Check compatibility list for validated drives. RS1221+ and RS1221RP+ include a 3-year limited hardware warranty, which can be extended to 5-years with the optional EW201 bundle, a 7-year Extended Warranty service add-on.

Derren Lu, CEO of Synology Inc and Scott Lee,Senior Manager of Software DevelopmentGroup for Surveillance Synology – a company founded by two former Microsoft employees – began as a storage solution provider and grew to include surveillance in its product offerings. While many security companies in Taiwan are voicing their concerns over falling sales, Synology is seeing its products grabbing shares in the security market and the sales figures are continuing to grow. Synology began its annual series of global roadshows in September, holding large-scale conferences in 17 countries spanning three continents, starting in Shanghai, China and ending in Istanbul, Turkey. In these “Synology 2016” conferences, the leading network-attached storage (NAS) vendor unveils new products and plans for the future. Most importantly, however, Synology sees these conferences as a chance to develop a closer relationship with their customers. SourceSecurity.com’s APAC correspondent, Alyssa Fann caught up with Synology’s CEO, Derren Lu, for a quick interview at the end of the Taipei conference to discuss the company’s marketing and product strategy, and the story behind Synology’s success. As CEO, Lu oversees Synology’s global operations, with a focus on delivering products with innovative features and unrivalled customer service. Previously, Lu was also General Manager of Synology France, responsible for expanding growth in European markets. Tracking the trends SourceSecurity.com: Over 1,000 people registered for the Taipei event alone. What is the story behind these large-scale events? Lu: End users today differ from end users of the past. The Internet of Things has changed the way companies interact with their customers. End users today strongly feel the need to understand and trust your company before using your products. For Synology, annual conferences such as these provide a platform for us to communicate with our customers and build a stronger relationship. SourceSecurity.com: What are the main strategies that have enabled Synology to grow since its founding to become a global company? Lu: We began as a software company, and one of Synology’s strengths is that we had no burdens. This enabled us to look at the entire market and trends to focus on catching what is important. For example, two trends that I feel Synology has successfully caught onto are cloud and mobile. When the first iPhone was launched, Synology immediately established a team to work on making our features mobile-friendly, as we saw mobile devices gaining significance in the future. Overall, we analyse the main trends in the market and whether Synology has a part to play. If the answer is yes, we do it. New kid on the security block SourceSecurity.com: Were there any trends specific to the surveillance market that Synology has successfully caught on? The years that it took IP-based solutions to overtake analogue solutions were beneficial for us – it allowed Synology to perfect its product offering Lu: We began to offer video surveillance recording in 2007. Although we are a storage solution provider, we felt that simply providing a storage solution was insufficient; hence, we began to look at the applications that require storage. We immediately saw the large demand for storage in video recording. Back then, the security market was still predominately analogue, but we saw IP-based solutions overtaking analogue, which would translate to requirements for larger storage capacity and flexible storage options as resolutions grow. Hence, we chose to only focus on the NVRs for IP-based security solutions, despite security industry veterans suggesting to us that it may be years before IP-based solutions overtake analogue solutions in the security market. At Synology, however, we decided not to divide our resources because we saw the analogue market as saturated. In fact, the years that it took IP-based solutions to overtake analogue solutions were beneficial for us – it allowed Synology to perfect its product offering. As a latecomer to the security market, Synology chose to focus on its strengths and compete in a new paradigm, instead of competing against established analogue solution providers. Seeing value, not costs, in customer feedback SourceSecurity.com: What is the percentage of security sales in Synology’s total sales? Lu: Based on our analyses from data that users have consented to share, one in five Synology users also use our security solution. Also noteworthy, our beta software release of surveillance station 7.1 saw 35,000 to 40,000 downloads in the first couple of weeks. This is interesting as it is only the beta version, which is not generally popular with businesses as they are often averse to risking their stored data. We were surprised to see the amount of interest generated by the beta version of the software and that our end users are open to new concepts and features. SourceSecurity.com: Did the customers take this opportunity to provide feedback? Lu: They were very eager to provide feedback on the products in general. We found that they were eager to use this opportunity to communicate with us and did not limit their feedback to the new features. For Synology, we see great value in listening to the voices of our customers, as they often go on to recommend Synology to their friends and employers. We have many cases where our products, including surveillance solutions, were recommended to businesses by employees who use Synology products at home.