We Look at Synology’s NAS and Software at Computex 2016

Synology’s new router looks impressive, but we shouldn’t forget their core area which is NAS units. One of the newest units in their lineup is the DS416play that was presented for the first time here at Computex 2016. The new DiskStation DS416play is an upgraded version of the very popular DS415play and there is no doubt that this new version will be just as popular among customers.

The Synology DiskStation DS416play is the first model in the Value series product line to adopt and use the Intel Celeron N3060 Dual Core CPU. It not only comes with a faster CPU frequency that can burst up to 2.48 GHz, it also features an AES-NI Hardware Encryption Engine. The CPU is then backed by 1GB DDR3 memory.

Another awesome feature is the Btrfs support that allows for a better drive setup with more options and less capacity usage during snapshots. The DS416play also features real-time H.264 1-channel 4K or 3-channel Full HD video transcoding. With its two Gigabit LAN ports, it can deliver a performance of sequential throughput (64KB) under Link Aggregation up to 225.68 MB/s in reading and 186.67 MB/s in writing. The encrypted performance can reach up to 224.91 MB/s reading and 142.56 MB/s in writing.

The DS416play is already available worldwide now for a recommended retail price of £372.00 including VAT.

If the DS416play doesn’t deliver enough performance or scalability for you, then the brand new DS916+ might be right for you. It comes with an Intel N3710 processor and either 2GB or 8GB RAM, and it bridges the gap between costly enterprise level capacity and personal storage that are insufficient for expanding businesses.

The DS916+, thanks to the quad-core CPU and built-in ports, is a 4-bay scalable NAS. It is designed for professionals and growing businesses where it performs high-speed computing and data encryption tasks. With flexible scalability up to 9 drives, DS916+ is able to handle rapidly growing storage capacity needs.

The DS916+ also brings along the Btrfs file format and is in itself powered by Synology’s latest operating system, DSM 6.0. We’re currently busy testing and benchmarking this unit, so expect the full review very shortly.

Synology also had a large display area for some of the DSM features such as the Surveillance Station that allows you to use your NAS as a centralized surveillance system. Connect your IP cams to the NAS and have everything in one secure location.

One of the newer features, although not new in itself, is the total mail solution. The latest version comes with MailPlus server and MailPlus clients without extra third party setups such as Roundcube.

The new and improved Cloud Backup and Sync was shown off as well.

And so were the workplace collaboration tools built directly into these amazing Synology NAS’.

A NAS is a lot more than just a bunch of drives connected through a network connection. They come with so many built-in features that allow you to create your own personal version of what other people do in the cloud.

Create spreadsheets and collaborate with your coworkers on it with unlimited version history that’s all stored locally, something you otherwise would need Google Docs or similar features to do. The Note Station is half a word-processings software built so you can use it directly from your browser. It even includes an offline mode to preserve bandwidth while on the go.