Synology Introduces DS409Slim Backup Solution

Network-attached storage producer Synology America announced the launch of its 2.5-inch four-bay Disk Station DS409slim, which the company said brings lower power consumption, virtually quiet operations and a small footprint, both physically and financially, to small to medium-size business owners looking for a reliable data sharing and backup solution.

The DS409slim uses 2.5-inch hard drives to increase shock tolerance and reduce power consumption. Synology claims the DS409slim consumes only 19 watts of power under normal operating conditions with all four hard drives installed. A “smart” fan feature was designed to keep the DS409slim's fan off under normal operations, resulting in a quieter disk station well-suited to an office environment. The disk station, slightly larger than a 12-ounce coffee cup, offers SMBs with restricted office space the ability to be placed nearly anywhere.

Heather Morford, marketing director of Synology America, said the DS409slim is one of the most versatile, energy-efficient and stylish NAS devices on the market. "When you look at its compact size, you would never dream that it's a full-featured file server, backup solution, surveillance station, e-mail server, Web server and home media server,” she said. “It's designed for the SMB market, but as an 'all-in-one solution,' it's also a great choice for home users.”

Mortford said home users will appreciate the surveillance features to keep watch on the house or young family members, being able to stream or share files over the Internet and “the peace of mind” that it serves as a solid backup solution to protect memories and financial information. “Best of all, it can sit on a bookshelf and won't look like you have an IT department in your living room," she added.

With four hot-swappable drives, a 1.2GHz CPU, 128MB of DDRII RAM, one Gigabit LAN port, two USB 2.0 ports and one eSATA port, it is well-suited to handle the needs of a midmarket company, the company said. The DS409slim also supports up to 2TB with the combination of four 2.5-inch SATA or SSD hard drives of 500GB each.

The DS409slim comes with Disk Station Manager 2.1 firmware that supports Windows ADS integration, cross-platform data sharing, RAID data protection and several backup alternatives. Multimedia applications include Download Station 2-functions as a 24/7 BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP, eMule and NZB download center. Audio Station supports music, Internet radio stations, and iPod playback with connected USB speakers. UPnP support allows users to stream multimedia files with an UPnP DMA on a stereo system or a TV set. Video game consoles Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox360 are also supported.

DSM 2.2 beta will be released in July 2009, with the official version seeing release in September 2009. DSM 2.2 includes many features that the DS409slim will utilize, including a DLNA-compliant media server that ensures interoperability between the DS409slim and various DLNA-certified CE, PC and mobile devices. Apple iPhone support allows users to upload photos to DS409slim or to browse photos stored on DS049slim with iPhone or iPod touch and the ability to stream music with the iPhone or iPod touch.