Synology Releases Four-Bay NAS Server

Synology, a manufacturer of network attached storage servers, introduced the DS410 DiskStation, a four-bay network attached storage server aimed at workgroups and small and midsize businesses. The DS410 is sold both diskless and preconfigured with hard drives. The diskless DS410 model will be priced around $499. Built on the company's DiskStation Manager firmware, DSM 2.3, the company said the DS410 is faster than the DS409, its predecessor, and offers more features such as encrypted file sharing, automatic backup to the cloud, desktop and network backup, multimedia streaming, surveillance, e-mail and Web hosting and others.

The DS410 DiskStation holds up to 8TB of storage across four bays of hard drives. Also included is an energy-saving design including hard drive hibernation, a smart fan and scheduled power on/off. The DS410 supports a host of features including encrypted file sharing, backup, e-mail and Web hosting, surveillance, print server, FTP downloads and a multimedia server. The new DiskStation Manager 2.3 (DSM) firmware, included with the DS410 offers a new RAID and volume management called Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR).

Frankin Hua, technical product specialist at Synology America, said in the Synology labs, the DS410 test results show that when configured in RAID 5, the appliance reached 110M bps reading speeds and 54.9M bps writing speeds within a 1GB environment.

In addition to providing a complete backup solution with auto notifications for network and desktop backups, the DS410 also backs up to the cloud using the integrated Amazon S3 service utility. With cloud support, the DS410 offers double protection for critical data by keeping a copy of the data on the DiskStation and a duplicate off-site backup in the cloud. Heather Morford, director of marketing for Synology America, said how well a business can manage, protect and share important data is critical to the success or failure of today's businesses.

"Even small businesses who manage data have concerns over security and backup and their concerns are just as important as their larger counterparts. This is exactly why we've tailored our DiskStations to address not only data management issues but also solve the budget and maintenance concerns specifically of smaller companies," Morford said. "The DS410 is priced affordably for smaller businesses who have a growing need for data storage and management but also includes a ton of applications and features for businesses who want to get as much value from a single purchase as possible."

Earlier this year the company released DiskStation Manager 2.3 beta, which introduced updated features for business and home users including backup to the cloud with Amazon S3, Volume Manager, live view of Surveillance Station with a DS cam iPhone app and additional features and enhancements. Existing applications receive a makeover in DSM 2.3 that add enhancements to File Station, Surveillance Station, Photo Station and Audio Station. The DSM 2.3 beta is available to download free of charge for users who own a DiskStation 7-series and onward.