CAN A NAS REPLACE
Google Drive?
When we looked at NAS back in 2014, the big news was the development of cloudstyle sync capabilities. Synology, Qnap and Netgear had imbued their high-end NAS appliances with remote access share and sync features, then backed those up with desktop apps that synced specific folders between the NAS and multiple PCs – plus mobile apps for access on the move.
Effectively, you could run your own Google Drive or Dropbox from within your home or office, only with terabytes of free capacity and none of the third-party privacy implications.
Since then, things have moved on. Some firms, notably Synology and Qnap, have developed Notes apps that sync text and images between your NAS and a desktop client, or allow you to edit notes stored online within your browser. WD’s My Cloud devices now have auto-sync through desktop apps, plus automatic photo and video backup from your smartphone or tablet through a mobile app. Asustor, Netgear, Qnap and Thecus all offer the same through their mobile apps.
Synology, however, has taken its cloud-style features furthest. Its Drive app is effectively a clone of Google’s Drive cloud ecosystem, only running on your NAS rather than on Google’s cloud. Beyond desktop folder sync and browser-based access, you get business-grade features such as teams and team folder management, integrated chat – and built-in Office applications. Not only can you view Microsoft Office documents within the browser, you can convert them into Synology’s format and edit them.
The only real question is: would you want to? Synology Drive runs smoothly enough on the DS218 and DS418, and virtually lag-free on the speedier DS918+, while large files open and download at higher speeds than they would from Google Drive or OneDrive. That is, they do if you’re on the local network – elsewhere you’re limited by the upload speeds and latency of your home or office internet connection. Synology’s Office apps also aren’t a substitute for Google’s. Edit text documents, for example, and you’ll find the image formatting and layout tools very basic, while blocks of text can only be reformatted one paragraph at a time.
This is an interesting development, but it’s not quite ready for prime time yet – Google Drive still wins on both flexibility and features.