MediaValet’s Digital Asset Management platform makes enterprise digital libraries accessible, discoverable, and shareable to the organization's entire ecosystem – globally.
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DiskStation
Score 8.9 out of 10
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DiskStation is a line of network-attached storage (NAS) solutions from Synology headquartered in Taiwan.
MediaValet is an exceptional tool for our end users. We upload the images and they find them. Most often with great ease. Had we known how many images we would be adding, and our different audiences from the start, we might have set up our file structure a little differently.
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.
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.
Replace an old version of an asset with a newer one without having to check-out, then check-in
Sharing an asset or a set of assets via a share link -- would be great to generate shorter, dynamic URLs for sharing as opposed to the longer string URLs it currently generates
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.
It is not only likely, but we have been doing it for more than 6 years. We have even had the service since before I joined the company. The service works well for me and I hope that this service will continue to be renewed next year, as not having it would make my job more complicated.
It provides us with great ROI compared with other solutions. It is also a versatile product, having NAS and SAN product lines depending on the business requirement. Furthermore, the implementation of dual controller lines would allow us to consider it for more critical applications to supplement the more enterprise-level SAN solution. It also is a wonderful backup solution, having all the applications available after purchase of the appliance without the further need to purchase additional software or licensing.
Synology DiskStations are extremely easy to setup and to manage. The interface is fast and convenient. Even the integration of an active directory server is easy. Adding features from the community or Synology itself is managed via a simple click within the app store. Sometimes the upgrade process gets a bit complicated when you use an app that is not supported. Then you have to do a bit of shifting things around if this component is used by another service, e.g. the webserver. In general Synology is next to QNAP my favorite NAS vendor.
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.
I mainly use MediValet to send special medical images to our partners. Collaboration with other companies is very simplified through MediaValet. The qualitatively uploaded images can be excactly assigned and organised through various filters. It is much clearer and easier for our partners to understand when the images have been accurately labelled and assigned beforehand.
Asset sharing and organization is better, more user friendly, and more appealing within MediaValet. The layout and flexibility give these portals a much more professional look and feel. Both internally and externally we have appreciated the output of these specific portals much more than what we had been attempting to share with these other programs.
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.
While we have had MediaValet only for a short period, we are already seeing improvements in how quickly certain projects can be completed.
I recently created an Annual Report which had a lot of big image files and data tables and using a Lightbox with our design agency to share these files saved us a huge amount of time.
As we roll out MediaValet to the teams, staff are becoming more aware of the quality, amount, and value of our best assets.
