Synology Releases a New 4-Bay NAS for Serious Home Data Storage
Nearly every photographer needs digital storage for their archived images and current projects. For many of us, it’s not just a luxury but a serious necessity. This is why having your collection of photographic work safely stored across multiple media is one very important task.
One part of these storage needs should absolutely include a cloud option, in which your photos and video archives are safe even if your office or home business burns right to the ground, or gets completely robbed.
However, even cloud storage can cause problems, either with download/upload slowness or with account lock-outs.
Thus, another option should be a robust-enough local storage that lets you store plenty while easily being able to access and use it. This is where a device like the new DiskStation DS923+ network attached storage (NAS) might come into the picture as a handy option.
The DiskStation is the newest addition to this brand’s Plus line of storage devices for home businesses, but it might be a handy option for professional photographers who need plenty of digital space.
We say this as a serious consideration and without an affiliate relationship to this particular product.
The simple fact is that most serious photographers -and without a doubt many videographers working with ultra HD video of some kind- need access to serious, large-capacity storage space.
The DiskStation DS923+ NAS offers exactly this and in an easily manageable format that offers a whopping 50TB maximum capacity within its four-bay configuration.
This particular NAS storage from the brand is a more compact version of its DS1522+ five-bay NAS that was announced in June of this year with much more robust and complex specs.
However, the new device comes with the same DiskStation Manager OS and can function as a primary storage unit and data backup hub for a whole range of home and small business office needs.
What’s more, the DS923+ can be expanded into a larger storage system if connected to a DX517 expansion unit. This additional configuration lets it handle up to 9 drives and hold as many as 120TB of data.
This expansion pack and even its normal 50TB configuration both make it useful for small-scale pro UHD video production projects. Both configurations make it handy for even the most serious photographers.
This last part of this NAS unit’s capacity is a fundamental thing to keep in mind. The device offers professional photographers working with high-resolution images from today’s best cameras a storage option that won’t soon run out of space.
Cloud storage is the ultimate in physical security for photos, but a localized NAS unit that’s also easily transportable and long-lasting offers both security and easy access to large volumes of photographic and video work.
These are crucial security and usability features for any photographer who’s very serious about preserving their images as securely as possible, especially if they’ve been created across many years of travel and effort.
Right out of the box, the DiskStation DS923+ delivers 625MB/s of sequential read speeds and 559MB/s of sequential write speeds.
Synology also claims that it has the ability to perform even better by being upgraded to 10GbE networking and by placing M.2 NVMe SSD drives inside its integrated PCIe slot for fast caching and further all-flash storage pools.
All of these features taken together amount to quite a bit of customization options for such a small device.
The DiskStation DS923+ NAS measures out at just 166 x 199 x 223 mm, or 6.5 x 7.8 x 88 inches, making it compact enough to be placed just about anywhere and very easily moved to a new location or taken along during travel as needed.
One other data security feature that Synology has given the device is the capacity for remote backup across multiple locations through its Synology Drive technology for hybrid cloud storage.
According to the brand, “Synology Hybrid Share efficiently stores cold data in the cloud and keeps frequently accessed files cached on the device for access at LAN speed,”
The company further elaborates, “Syncing between cloud storage services and up to five Synology servers enables deployments to benefit from the convenience of the cloud and the speed of local access over LAN. One-way or bidirectional syncing can be configured to cater to each team’s needs or requirements.”
Broad, robust data storage is a vital thing to have for any photographer who doesn’t want to use their invaluable archives of work to some random accident or hardware failure.
A device like the DiskStation DS923+ NAS at least claims to offer genuinely strong characteristics for delivering security.
Synology is selling the DiskStation DS923+ NAS for $600 with all of its storage hardware and software. This however doesn’t include the hard drives it needs.
Check out these 8 essential tools to help you succeed as a professional photographer.
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Stephan Jukic is a technology and photography journalist and experimental photographer who spends his time living in both Canada and Mexico. He loves cross-cultural street photo exploration and creating fine art photo compositions.
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