Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
HOME NET WORKING BUT SIMPLEFIED
COMPUTEX2018 HAD AN EYE ON THE LESS TECHNICALLY MINDED CONSUMER, HERE ARE SOME OG THE TOP TRENDS.
GET MESHING
The Synology Mr2200ac mesh router is equipped with Qualcomm IPQ4019 quadcore CPU and tri-band Wifi, enabling you to expand your Wifi coverage by way of flexible deployment. Only one platform – SRM – can then be used to manage all of your Wifi connections and devices. Additionally, both settings and remote management can be operated through either a web interface or a dedicated mobile app called DS router.
SRM 1.2 comes with more granular configurations than before, including user profile creation, detailed traffic management, advanced web filters, and a number of white-listing features. With the integration of third-party databases such as Google Safe Browsing and DNS/IP threat intelligence, home users and IT admins alike can enjoy a hassle-free, but still powerful network management experience within this year.
Mesh routers make for a much better Wifi solution than stand-alone routers, because they basically create a system of multiple, connected Wifi stations, which work together to cover your home or office with a wireless connection. That means no more dead spots or having to buy Wifi extenders.
The great thing about Synology’s mesh router software is that it’ll automatically detect other routers – whether Synology products or not – and set up the mesh network for you. And should one of the routers in your mesh network fail, the software will attempt to reconfigure the whole network to compensate for the failed router.
GOING VIRTUAL
The only non- consumer trend for 2018 is business-grade seamless backups and virtual machine management. Synology’s Active Backup for Business brings with it complete protection for various workloads from PCS, Windows and Linux servers, and virtual machines. This product was geared directly at IT managers – Changed Block Tracking (CBT) technology will only back up modified blocks, not everything every time, and global deduplication finds and deletes duplicated files. These methods enhance backup efficiency and reduce unnecessary storage consumption.
‘More and more organisations and companies are operating across physical, virtual, and cloud platforms. This phenomenon presents a tremendous challenge to IT departments for ensuring the safety of the growing data in this cross-platform environment.’ said Jia-yu Liu, senior manager of the Cloud and Backup division at Synology Inc. ‘ To tackle this problem, Synology provides a new, all-in-one solution that closely integrates software and hardware for businesses of varying scale.’
Some of the key features of Active Backup include PC and server protection for image-based backups to protect your Windows PC or Windows server workloads; virtual machine protection by just using Vmware vsphere info; and running on VMM, giving you the ability to create the same IT environment as the product site and serve as a temporary Disaster Recovery solution, export/import objects and an upgrade testing environment.
VMM gives you the ability to run virtual machines in a cluster infrastructure with up to seven Synology NAS (Network-attached storage) devices.
Thanks to its flexible scalability and a live migration tool, VMM can optimise load balancing and resource allocation. The new VMM Pro supports schedulable backup and replication of virtual machines to another Synology NAS, which serves to safeguard your digital business assets.
GOING LIVE
If you have been thinking about setting up a smart home security camera system, but you’re still uncertain as to which system to get, then this is for you. Livecam, a new application in Surveillance Station 8.2, can turn your spare smartphone into an IP camera. All you need is to download the applications and utilities, which can be found in the upgraded Application Center, set up your spare/old phones and place them around your home or office as you need them.
NO-FUSS NAS
After going through over 71 000 different network-attached storage (NAS) units in a gruelling eightmonth-long beta programme, Synology settled on one that would be launched as the DSM 6.2. It proved more reliable, efficient
and secure than any NAS that has come before it and supports the new Advanced LUN (logical unit number protocol, which increases sequential writing performance by 46 per cent. This, in turn, enables lightning-fast snapshots and instantaneous recovery.
This set-up is combined with the revamped Synology High Availability (SHA) 2.0 technology, which significantly cuts initial cluster set-up time, as well as brand-new system overview and resource monitoring that allows admins far greater control over passive and active servers.
These advancements are also built into the full suite of new NAS models – DS1019+, DS2419+, DS619 slim, and 1U XS – to satisfy a wide range of user needs and deployment configurations. This approach should decrease service downtime across the board.
‘Most modern-day companies compete based on the speed at which they generate, process, and use data to drive innovations,’ Lu continued. ‘By integrating Intel technology, we are now putting a compact powerhouse in every SMB. It will allow them to take advantage of all that untapped throughput to give their company that extra edge.’
One of our favourite new Synology NAS devices shown was the Diskstation DS1618+, a 6-bay NAS that features the Intel Atom C3538. It’s perfect for technology enthusiasts, home users and smallto medium-sized businesses. It is powered by a quad-core Intel Atom processor C3538 and 4 GB DDR4 non-ecc SODIMM, which can be expanded up to 32 GB in ECC SODIMMS. The storage capacity can be upgraded to 192 TB when connected to two further DX517 expansion units, providing fastgrowing companies a data-storage solution that can easily scale with their business.
With Synology’s M2D17 PCIE adapter card, DS1618+ can house dual M.2 SATA SSD, taking advantage of the SSD cache to boost maximum throughput and reduce the I/O latency. By alternatively installing a network interface card via the PCIE slot, DS1618+ supports up to two 10GBE ports to reach a maximum throughput of 1 551 Mbps reading and 586 Mbps writing.
‘Small- to medium-sized businesses need powerful, secure and scalable storage solutions to efficiently manage growing levels of digital content,’ said Dan Artusi, the Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Connected Home Division. ‘ Through our collaboration with Synology, their Diskstation NAS products based on the Intel Atom processor C series have the performance and configurable high-speed I/O to help businesses quickly store and manage their most critical data.’
SMART MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Moving away from pure tech hardware, Synology also has great entertainment solutions for home users.
Video Station gives you the ability to manage and watch all the movies, series and videos stored on your Synology NAS. What makes it great is that it is able to stream all of this to a variety of devices including your PC or laptop, smart TV, smartphone and tablet, as well as a range of set-top boxes such as Apple TV.
Moments is Synology’s picture-storage solution. You can think of it as its version of Google Photos. Moments provides the same functionality to Synology product owners, also without having to subscribe to, and pay for, an image-storage service.
You’ll be able to sort and search for your images via place, person or subject, and you’ll be able to share them with friends or family any time you want. And there’s something similar to handle your massive music collection.
Audio Station – and its app, DS audio – give you the ability to manage your music library, listen to online radio and create and share personal playlists with friends, no matter where you are.
What makes it even better is that you can not only stream music to various devices, but also stream it in the hi-def FLAC or DSD formats. The DS audio app works on Android and IOS.
Overall, Synology is a company that provides an entire ecosystem of smart solutions for your home or business. It leverages its knowledge to help you scale up or down without having to sacrifice quality or expertise.