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How Synology Leverages its Disk Station to Increase Productivity and Global Service Efficiency

Company Profile

Founded in 2000, Synology is a young and energetic company dedicated to developing high-performance, reliable, versatile, and environmentally-friendly Network Attached Storage (NAS) products. Our goal is to deliver user-friendly solutions and solid customer service to satisfy the needs of businesses, home offices, individual users and families.

Challenge: Provide Efficient Services and Improve Internal Productivity

As Synology becomes increasingly depended on the Internet to provide services to its customers around the world, finding an efficient way to frequently update the multilingual website, provide firmware for download, and maintain the online forum is becoming a challenge. In addition, as Synology team steadily grows, the increasing amount of electronic files and the security issue that comes with more people coming in and out of the office all add to the complexity in managing Synology's network environments.

Solution: Disk Station with high performance, high capacity, and high security

Synology realizes its needs to adopt an easier management system in order to thrive in the versatile and highly competitive global market. In 2009, Synology adopts its own Disk Station to meet its internal needs and to provide external Internet services. Synology now uses four RS409+ to host the official website, official forum, firmware download site, and the European download site. A RS408 and a DS509+ expanded with DX5 are set up as file servers to share the company's internal files. Synology also set up a CS406 as its public FTP site to transfer files to and from suppliers, and a DS207+ as surveillance server to monitor the entrances of the office. In addition, the human resource department has its own DS207 to store all the confidential information.

Results: Faster Services for Customers and Better Productivity

RS409+: Official Website & Download Server

With customers from all over the world, Synology relies heavily on its official website to provide product information to potential customers and online support to existing customers. As a result, the online service needs to be available at all times and easy to manage at the same time. After replacing the PC with two RS409+ to host the website content and the official forum respectively, the maintenance time required is reduced by at least 30%, and with hot swapping hard disk design, Synology's network administrator can now replace hard disks without interrupting the server.

Synology releases several free firmware updates every year. To provide faster service, the headquarters and the UK branch each set up a RS409+ to host the firmware download site, drastically reducing users' download time by at least 70% during major firmware releases.

"After we started using RS409+ to host our website and download site, I realized how complicated and energy-consuming PC servers are. I'll never go back to using a PC server again."

- Alex Wang, Network Administrator, Synology

RS408 and DS509+/DX5: File Servers

Synology currently has two main file servers to share work-related files and for backing up personal files respectively. Synology originally set up the server on two CS406s, but as the number of employee rapidly grows, they are replaced by a RS408 and a DS509+ expanded with a DX5. Accessing files is on average 100% more efficient and the available volume capacity tripled.

CS406: FTP Server

The FTP server Synology uses to transfer files to and from its suppliers is equipped with advanced access rights control and encryption options to ensure important data is fully protected. The CS406 has been running for three years and is still going strong, demonstrating the reliability and the quality.

"We have a lot of multimedia advertisement materials that easily exceed 200MB, and transferring these files used to be a major source of frustration. The FTP server on CS406 solved our problem."

- Peggy Chen, Marketing Specialist, Synology

DS207+: Surveillance Server

As the company expands steadily, the increased number of people coming in and out of the office created the need for a surveillance system. After setting up a surveillance server on a DS207+ and two IP cameras at the entrances, Synology can now use the newly released Surveillance Station 2 for real-time monitoring and recording.

DS207: HR Department's Private Server

Employees are considered the most valuable asset of a company, and confidential HR information should be protected with highest level of security. Currently, Synology's human resources department uses a DS207 to store its files. After the network administrator finished setting up, HR department changed the administration password and now has exclusive use of the server. The user-friendly management UI allows staff without advanced technical knowledge to be able to manage on their own and substantially reduces the workload of the MIS.

"With DS207, I can access and backup sensitive information without worries."

- Ricki Lee, HR Manager, Synology

DS209j: DNS Server

Currently, Synology has registered over 35 domain names with domain name service providers around the world. In addition, the official site also provides several simple domain names such as forum.synology.com. In order to better manage DNS services, Synology's network administrator decided to set up its own DNS server. After installing Synology's third-party integrated DNS package with on a DS209j, the network administrator can now centrally manage Synology's DNS services.

Synology's Disk Station Allocation Chart

Volume Allocation：RS409+ (Official site, RAID 5, total capacity: 3TB)、RS409+ (Forum, RAID 5, total capacity: 3TB)、RS409+ (Official download site, RAID 5, total capacity :480GB)、RS409+ (UK download site, RAID 5, total capacity: 480GB) 、CS406 (FTP server, RAID 1, total capacity: 80GB) 、RS408 (File server, RAID 5, total capacity: 3TB) 、DS509+ & DX5 (File server, RAID 5 Expanded, total capacity: 7.5TB) 、DS207+ (Surveillance server, RAID 1, total capacity: 500GB) 、DS207 (HR department's private server, RAID 1, total capacity: 80GB)、DS209j (DNS server, RAID 1, total capacity: 160GB).

An Analysis on the benefits of using Disk Station

Purpose	Model	Main Benefits	Statistics
Web Server: Official Website	RS409+	Provides uninterrupted service and reduces the maintenance time	In the month of March, 2009, the website's page view reached four million and the website request number reached 29.6 million.
Web Server: Forum	RS409+	Provides uninterrupted service and reduces the maintenance time	Up until April 29, 2009, the official forum has 9,310 registered users and 59,789 posts.
Download Server	RS409+	Provides faster download service for users	On March 31, 2009, 32,000 files were downloaded in a single day.
Mirror Download Server	RS409+	Provides faster download for European and American users	On March 31, 2009, 37,000 files were downloaded in a single day.
FTP Server	CS406	Provides secure file transferring service with suppliers	Up to April 29, 2009, the server has been running for more than three years.
File Server	RS408	Provides simultaneous access efficiently and reduces network administrator's maintenance time
File Server	DS509+ & DX5	Provides simultaneous access efficiently and reduces network administrator's maintenance time
Surveillance Server	DS207+	Provides a better surveillance system to ensure the safety of the office
HR Department's Exclusive Server	DS207	Ensures the confidentiality of sensitive information and reduces network administrator's maintenance time
DNS Server	DS209j	Reduces the time needed to maintain DNS services with centralized management	The DNS server manages over 35 domain names.