[2]

Synology was founded in 2000 by engineers Cheen Liao and Philip Wong in Taiwan. The company’s original goal was to create simple yet powerful storage solutions for businesses and home users. Instead of focusing only on hardware performance, Synology invested heavily in software development, believing that storage devices should function like complete servers rather than simple hard drives. This software-first philosophy eventually became one of Synology’s biggest competitive advantages. Today, Synology products are sold worldwide through distributors, system integrators, retailers, and online channels. The company reports more than 13 million installations globally and works with tens of thousands of channel partners. [3]

Synology’s mission is to manage and protect the world’s data. The company focuses on helping organizations and individuals store data securely, protect against data loss, improve collaboration, simplify IT management, and build private cloud infrastructure. [4] [11]

1. NAS (Network Attached Storage)

Synology is most famous for its NAS devices. A NAS is essentially a dedicated computer designed to store files and provide them over a network. Popular product families include:

• DiskStation (DS) – Desktop NAS

• RackStation (RS) – Rack-mounted NAS

• FlashStation (FS) – All-flash enterprise storage

• BeeStation – Simplified personal storage

• Expansion Units – Storage expansion devices

These systems support RAID, file sharing, virtualization, backup, and multimedia applications. [5]

2. DiskStation Manager (DSM)

DSM (DiskStation Manager) is Synology’s proprietary operating system. It is widely regarded as one of the easiest NAS operating systems to use. Key features include:

• Web-based desktop interface

• Multi-user management

• Package Center

• Docker containers

• Virtual machines

• File sharing

• Snapshot management

• Backup tools

• Security controls

3. Backup Solutions

Synology provides comprehensive backup software, including:

• Active Backup for Business

• Hyper Backup

• Snapshot Replication

• USB Backup

• Cloud Sync

These tools support backup of Windows PCs, macOS, Linux, VMware, Hyper-V, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, servers, and entire NAS systems. [6]

4. Private Cloud

Synology offers private cloud services that let organizations host their own data rather than relying entirely on public cloud providers. Products include:

• Synology Drive

• Synology Office

• Synology Photos

• Synology Chat

• Synology Calendar

• Synology MailPlus

Together they provide alternatives to services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft 365, and Slack while keeping data under the organization’s control.

5. Surveillance

Synology also develops video surveillance solutions. Its Surveillance Station software supports thousands of IP camera models and includes features such as:

• Live monitoring

• Recording

• Motion detection

• AI-assisted analytics (on supported hardware)

• Centralized camera management

[7]

6. Networking

Although primarily known for storage, Synology also produces networking equipment, including:

• Wi-Fi routers

• Mesh networking systems

• VPN solutions

• Firewall features

• Traffic monitoring

Examples include the RT and WR series.

7. Synology C2 Cloud

Synology C2 is the company’s cloud platform. Services include:

• Cloud Backup

• Cloud Storage

• Password Manager

• Identity Management

• Secure file sharing

• Disaster recovery

It complements on-premises NAS deployments with cloud capabilities. [8]

Synology’s ecosystem includes applications for:

• File management

• Backup

• Photos

• Video streaming

• Music streaming

• Notes

• Office productivity

• Virtualization

• Docker

• Database hosting

• Git servers

• Web hosting

• VPN

• DNS

• Mail servers

• Security monitoring

This broad software platform is one reason Synology is often described as providing more than just storage hardware.

Synology serves a wide range of users:

Home Users

• Photo storage

• Media streaming

• Personal backups

• Home cloud

Content Creators

• Video editing

• Photography workflows

• Shared project storage

Small Businesses

• File servers

• Office collaboration

• Backup

• Remote access

Enterprises

• Virtualization

• High-availability storage

• Surveillance

• Disaster recovery

• Data protection

Synology is known for:

• Excellent software experience

• User-friendly interface

• Long software support lifecycle

• Strong backup ecosystem

• Reliable hardware

• Extensive documentation

• Large application ecosystem

• Active user community

Synology competes with several storage and networking vendors, including:

• QNAP Systems

• ASUSTOR

• TerraMaster

• Western Digital

• Seagate Technology

• TrueNAS

Synology operates internationally with regional offices in areas including:

• Taiwan

• United States

• United Kingdom

• Germany

• France

• Japan

• China

Its products are localized into multiple languages and distributed worldwide. [9]

Synology has earned a strong reputation for reliable NAS hardware, a polished software experience, frequent DSM updates, comprehensive backup capabilities, and ease of deployment for small and medium-sized organizations. The company has also faced discussion within the NAS community over storage drive compatibility policies for some newer models, illustrating the balance it seeks between validated hardware support and user flexibility. [10]

Synology products commonly support:

• RAID

• Btrfs

• ext4

• Snapshots

• SSD caching

• Encryption

• Docker

• Virtual machines

• LDAP

• Active Directory integration

• SMB, NFS, FTP, WebDAV

• iSCSI

• High Availability

• Hybrid cloud

Synology emphasizes data security, reliability, simplicity, innovation, long-term software support, and seamless integration between hardware, software, and cloud services. [11]

1. Synology

2. Corporate SustainabilityProtecting the data that

3. NAS 101: Buyer’s Guide

4. Synology C2 | Built for your Synology ecosystem

5. “A new chapter” – Synology showcases some exciting, and unexpected, ecosystem additions at Computex 2025

6. Synology is tightening restrictions on third-party NAS hard drives

7. Synology walks back controversial compatibility policy for 2025 NAS units – third-party HDD and SSD support returns with DiskStation Manager 7.3 update

8. What is Synology Account? – Synology Knowledge Center

9. The machine that keeps millions of systems reliably up-to-date

10. Celebrating 10 Years of Productivity