Marsel van Oosten, Squiver - Award-winning wildlife photographer

Since I've started working with DiskStation, my workflow has become smoother and faster, affording me to work more efficient and more relaxed, knowing that I can rely on its stable performance. We recommend Synology products to all of our customers and friends, and we feel very confident in doing so. Marsel van Oosten, Squiver

The Company

Professional nature photographer Marsel van Oosten is a regular contributor to National Geographic. His images are featured in galleries and museums, and are used in advertising and design worldwide. In addition to winning the title Nature Photographer of the Year in the International Photography Awards two times in a row, his awards include the First Prize in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year, the First Prize in Nature's Best International Photography Awards, and many other.

Marsel and his wife as well as videographer Daniella Sibbing run a photographic company named Squiver, which organizes specialized nature photography tours and workshops all over the planet.

The Challenge

The Squiver team travel 8 months a year for shooting. Marsel tends to shoot a lot more images on a wildlife trip than on a landscape one. On average he shoots roughly 5,000 images on a trip of 10 days. The original raw images are on average 10-30MB each, but the processed PSD files are significantly larger and may even reach 1GB. As a result, each trip leaves the Squiver team with a tremendous amount of images to be centralized and backed up. Most importantly, these images have to be accessed easily and quickly for future use. 

In the early days, Marsel used external hard drives to back up his masterpieces, but the drives failed frequently. File retrieving and backup were inefficient. Backup with external hard drives turned out to be a recipe for chaos. 

Marsel then tried a well-known NAS brand. Initially he was very pleased with his first RAID system, but quite soon both the hardware and the software proved to be very unstable. Also, it was slow, noisy and customer service was poor. That's why he decided to look for a better alternative.

The Solution

In 2012, Marsel started to search for an alternative for his unstable NAS. He targeted a multi-bay solution that was fast, flexible and reliable. After a thorough research over the Internet, he noticed that Synology products often come highly recommended. That's how he ended up with a DiskStation DS1812+. "It was my first Synology product, and it certainly won't be my last," said Marsel.

The Benefits

High Performance

As a centralized backup solution, the high-performance DS1812+ makes Marsel very satisfied. "Speed is a big issue for me, because I always work with very large files, up to 1GB each. I found that making backups to the DS1812+ was very fast with no hiccups or errors," said Marsel. "It is so much faster than my previous NAS. After my first backup on the DS1812+, I thought something had gone wrong. It finished so quickly and I could not believe that everything was already backed up, but turned out it was," added Marsel.

Stable, Reliable and Worthy of Endorsement

For professional photographer like Marsel, it is vital to protect and backup his masterpieces. "Since I've started working with DiskStation, my workflow has become smoother and faster, affording me to work more efficient and more relaxed, knowing that I can rely on its stable performance," expressed Marsel. "On our photo tours, workshops and seminars we meet a lot of photographers that have to deal with the same problems: lots of big files that need to be stored and backed up regularly, and preferably automated. We recommend Synology products to all of our friends and customers, and we feel very confident doing so," added Marsel.

Secure and Efficient RAID Storage with SHR

When Marsel set up his DS1812+, he got various hard drives ranging from 1 to 3 TB. Marsel noticed that unlike traditional RAID 5/6/10 etc. that creates a volume based on the smallest hard drive within the array, Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) maximizes total volume capacity by combining hard drives of varying sizes into the array. In addition, SHR volume can stand up to two disks lost, and the data volume will still be available for use. Thus Marsel selected SHR for the RAID type.

Compact, light-weight and quiet

Although Marsel's previous NAS and the DS1812+ carry the same number of hard disks, the latter one is much more compact and much lighter. "This means the DS1812+ takes up less of my work space and it's easier to transport. Looks are subjective, but the DS1812+ looks better in my opinion as well," indicated Marsel.

"An added bonus is the fact that the DS1812+ is very quiet. I actually have the DS1812+ standing on my desk, next to my computer and the sound it makes is very subtle. I was never able to do this with my previous NAS," commented Marsel.

In short, the DS1812+ is an ideal file sharing and backup NAS for professional photographers who require a rock-solid solution to safeguard their masterpieces. "I can't help but compare the DS1812+ to my previous NAS. In almost all aspects the DS1812+ is a much better product," said Marsel.

Recommended Models

  • DS1812+

Recommended Features

  • High performance
  • Stable and reliable
  • Secure and Efficient RAID Storage with SHR
  • Compact, light-weight and Quiet
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