FileCloud vs. Synology DiskStation

FileCloud is well suited for companies who want to utilize a cloud storage system but not use products such as Box or OneDrive. FileCloud allows the company to host everything on their own servers and have full administrative access to everything they need. If you don't have someone to manage a server, or don't need to have the granular admin access, this wouldn't be appropriate.

Incentivized

The Synology DiskStation is well suited as a NAS solution, easy enough to mirror a Windows file server shares setup. Access to the Hyperbackup utility eliminates the need to purchase a tape backup solution. A portable USB drive can be used as the initial backup target. For air gap purposes can connect Hyperbackup to the various cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, GCP to copy backup data there. Utilizing it as a backup solution has also been great, instead of purchasing a tape solution, tapes and an offsite tape repository. Active Backup for Business is another excellent backup utility for physical servers, VMWare virtual machines, etc. Restoring files is fairly intuitive. Until Synology introduced the dual controller setup, using it as a SAN was less appropriate as there was occasional downtime when the controller had an issue but this was less important for the scenarios we were using it for. It would be more of a concern if we had used it for things that require more robust uptime requirements. Overall we are happy with the features of the Synology DiskStation.

Incentivized

• Access internal file server data from anywhere on the planet with an internet connection.
• Send out emails with expiration dates, password links, and access control.
• Ability to send out attachments that are over the email limits for downloading.
• It integrates with NTFS and Active Directory.
• Integration plugin for Outlook and Office applications.

Incentivized

• Synology DiskStation offers lots of options for creating links to share files or request that some uploads files. It makes it really easy to just share a link that can have an expiration or a set number of times it is accessed.
• We always had enough storage on our Synology DiskStation, we never had to worry about something being too big to upload or share.
• Love how you can create folders that are shared and also have some that are private. This makes it so easy to have shared collaborations with coworkers or clients, but also allows you to have a private place to save things that only you need.

Incentivized

• Updates need to be more apparent to FileCloud Drive
• Uninstall/Reinstall was needed to fix most issues
• Cost

Incentivized

• While BTRFS is a more advanced file system than ext4, it also is in a perpetual state of development, with many features not fully functional and a plethora of bugs. Synology has managed to overcome many of these limitations by placing BTRFS on top of a LVM, but there are much better file systems that Synology could have used, such as OpenZFS.
• DSM's built-in backup software, HyperBackup, while robust, oftentimes runs into issues. Specifically, backups can be working fine for months or years, and then suddenly the backups will fail. Sometimes these failures can be resolved, but oftentimes the backups need to be completely restarted. Fortunately, even when the backup fails, the existing backups are still accessible, it is just that new backups can not be performed.
• The underlying Linux OS provides significant benefits, but also adds a fair amount of complexity. Most of that complexity is wonderfully hidden by the DSM interface, but when certain problems arise, delving into the Linux command line is not out of the question.
• Perhaps the biggest issue with Synology DiskStation is Synology's support. The issue isn't that the support is bad, but it can be frustratingly slow when dealing with a major issue. Synology does have a very active community that is always willing to help, but nothing beats first-party support.

Incentivized

As long as Synology give us support for our hard drivers we will not change. I know Synology has now forced their hands to buy their own hard drivers and their new line of products. But if we still have support for old hard drivers from other manufacturers then we will still use Synology Nas. Otherwise we change manufacturers

The Synology DiskStation is easy to set up and manage. The interface is clean and features are well documented. These units are reliable and can be set up to do scheduled integrity checks so failures can be mitigated before they halt business operations. The available packages for expanded roles makes these devices versatile.

Incentivized

Unfortunately, the one time I've had to reach out to DiskStation support, it did not go well. My NAS appliance wasn't appearing on the network, and no matter what the support team tried, they could not get it back online. Instead of offering to send me a new unit, they told me to go buy a new one - obviously, this was a disappointing response and not very eco-friendly either! Fortunately, through some internet research of my own, and some ingenuity, I figured out I could restore my NAS to factory settings by removing all the drives and resetting. Only then did I realize I had a bad disk. I had to experiment for a while to figure out which one it was. Once I had done that, though, I was able to get the latest DiskStation loaded back on, no thanks to the DiskStation support crew. If notifications were rock solid, I suspect I would have caught the bad disk before it because an OS problem, but I never received a bad-disk notification.

Incentivized

Their product is actively being updated and has better integration with the Mac platform which Varonis Datanywhere was lacking. In addition, the pricing is substantially cheaper than that compared for Varonis and FileCloud has more capabilities to sync, access, and download the data. Overall the comparison wins by far against one of their competitors.

Incentivized

Synology DiskStation packs a punch with the latest and greatest feature set which goes above and beyond many other vendors. It allows for a turn-key solution to cover almost every use case in the SMB market leaving other vendors behind.

Incentivized

• Allowed us to share our files easily
• Allowed us to manage our cloud shares as we saw fit
• The need to uninstall/reinstall after every other update was a little time consuming

Incentivized

• Minimal investment in the hardware, big return on productivity
• Streamlined IT needs, we no longer have to hire our IT vendor to assist us as regularly as we did when we were running servers
• Productivity on the road through web access has increased productivity and billable hours for remote employees

Incentivized