The Synology Solution Exhibition 2024 – EVERYTHING Revealed

Last updated on 05 Jun 2024 📧 Subscribe
Contents hide
1 Synology Solution Exhibition 2024 Taipei
2 The Synology GS Series
3 The Synology DP Series and ActiveProtect
4 Synology Unveils Its AI Integration with AI Console
5 Synology C2 Surveillance Station and Cloud Cameras
6 New Fisheye Camera and 8MP Bullet Camera
7 New Synology Flash NVMe and HDD Hybrid Rackmount (Still Early Development)
8 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Synology Solution Exhibition 2024 Taipei

(Article Still in Progress!)

Synology has been unusually talkative in advance of their latest launch event for 2024! All too often, they tend to hold back the bulk of their intended release plans for the year (in both hardware and software services) prior to their events, which can often lead to a lot of surprises. However, this year they went ahead and published a ‘teaser’ video that covered a lot of things well in advance. I think it would be fair to say that the bulk of what they were intending to show off was heavily targeted towards large businesses and enterprises.

This shouldn’t have proven much of a surprise, given that is the way the wind has been blowing with the brand in recent years (launching their own C2 cloud platform, their own branded storage media, a shifting focus in services designed to work in unison with SaaS and PaaS IPs, etc.). Nevertheless, the Synology Solutions showcase in Taipei (happening during the Computex 2024 event) has really doubled down on Enterprise problem-solving! From AI and hyper-scale to simplified multi-site backups and surveillance, let’s go over the big plans the brand has in the works for 2024, as well as try to see where they hope to be in the food chain of network storage next year!

The Synology GS Series

Synology is no stranger to large-scale storage. Last year, we saw the long-developed rollout of the High Density series (premiering a 60 Bay 4U Rackmount solution) and further refreshes in the Synology RS and SA series. However, it would appear that Synology has even loftier goals, with the launch of the Synology GS series – designed to massively scale up towards XX nodes (demonstrated as GS6400 rackmount devices) that, when clustered together, can scale up to an insane 20 Petabyte groups.

We are still awaiting details on the storage capacity scaling (i.e., will they arrive in pre-designated storage configurations), but they will no doubt roll out supporting the Synology HAT5310/HAS5310 Enterprise drives up to 20TB. The GS series appears to be in a slightly modified chassis (numeric LED panel and vent fascia) but seemingly will be using similar hardware/architecture to existing EPYC-powered systems already in the Synology RS/SA portfolio. Additionally, as the scale of the GS Clusters is so large, Synology are rolling out a dedicated GS Cluster switch to coordinate the whole thing. Pricing and capacity details are still TBC!

The Synology DP Series and ActiveProtect

Synology really made some noise on this one, and frankly, I can see why. The Data Protection series is a new tier of their portfolio that exclusively focuses on backup management, fast deployment, and simplicity. Arriving in rackmount hardware form (at least at launch), these systems will NOT arrive with DSM (the operating system of the majority of Synology NAS systems) but instead a dedicated backup appliance called ActiveProtect.

It appears to consolidate the features and functions of several parts of the Synology ecosystem (in particular Active Backup) in order to create a 10-minute setup backup solution for businesses who need robust and easily configurable backup management for:

  • Local PC/Mac/Linux client machines
  • Synology and 3rd Party Linux Server backups
  • Cloud-Based Software as a Service (SaaS) data, such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
  • Hyper-V/VMware virtual machines

The architecture of the ActiveProtect system also features a number of impressive restoration services built in, ranging from deploying backups of your cloud source VMs to a local VM deployed on the NAS and WORM-protected backups, to simple file/folder restoration and deduplication.

That last one is extra important, as not only does a single DP system with ActiveProtect deduplicate backed-up data in its immediate network circle, but when you deploy multiple DP systems across multiple sites in your business’ physical geography (i.e., sites globally) and have a dedicated target backup for them all, it will further deduplicate the data being sent from all those other DP systems too. You can find out more about the Synology DP series and ActiveProtect in the article below:

[Click Link to ActiveProtect Article]

Synology Unveils Its AI Integration with AI Console

This is something I think most of us saw coming! The integration of AI assistant services and AI language models into the majority of platforms we use on a daily basis has been pretty much non-stop these last 12-18 months, and it comes as no surprise that Synology is now moving into this. But to their credit, they have not rushed into this. In fact, although we saw very tentative steps and early demonstrations of where they would like it to go at their Taipei event in 2023 (see video HERE), they have not rushed into this. The Synology AI Console is their integration of AI assistant tools into a number of their collaboration tools, namely Synology Mail Plus, Office, and Chat.

These tools are designed to provide services that are tailored to these applications – not just a glossy portal/GUI with ChatGPT and other LLMs behind it. Such as the ability to provide a summary of larger email chains, provide context and proofreading of documents, craft responses to communication that are tonally appropriate, and more. Additionally, they state that the AI services will be completely optional, off by default, individually enabled, and have a framework in place that prevents sensitive information from being used in AI-generated content. The extent to how this is controlled and adapted by the system owner is yet to be fully confirmed, as is the level of control that is provided to the Synology NAS owner with regard to the AI’s reference points internally.

Video from a Synology event in 2023:

They do highlight that support of existing popular AI models that include ChatGPT, Microsoft Azure AI, and Google Gemini will be available when the service is launched (in beta, I assume), but I will be interested to see how far the brand will be willing to take AI integration (especially if they are going to allow flexibility in the AI models a user can connect with) as the ability to use AI tools with storage filing services, more creative search categorization, and analysis of system logs. We will have to wait and see… DSM 8?

Synology C2 Surveillance Station and Cloud Cameras

Although Synology has quite a few different apps and services in DSM, one of the most polished and universally praised examples is Surveillance Station. All Synology NAS systems that run DSM also include the Surveillance Station applications and the ability to add multiple cameras. However, 2 years ago, when Synology rolled out C2 Surveillance (a cloud failover and dual recording platform to be used in conjunction with SS), it was only a question of time before they went the extra step and created a ‘direct to cloud’ version of their Surveillance Station platform – C2 Surveillance Station.

This is a cloud-based UI of Surveillance Station that allows users to deploy Synology C2 cameras that record directly to the C2 Cloud. Now, there is an argument that this is something that other camera brands have always offered (i.e., a camera and a cloud subscription for recordings), and many choose Synology for their surveillance/CCTV as they have an in-house surveillance system in a DSM NAS.

However, that does not apply to everyone, and there are several different deployments that could see the benefits of a Synology surveillance system, but without deploying a Synology network storage appliance, such as:

  • Building sites, where the network and PoE structure of surveillance cameras are not present
  • Locations with a largely exclusive wireless network
  • Mobile setups that require camera security, but have a regularly changing physical location
  • Users who want the user-friendly surveillance UI of Surveillance Station, but are not interested in purchasing more than the physical cameras

Needless to say, after this initial reveal, there is still the question of pricing, i.e., will the cameras require a monthly storage subscription? Do the cameras support use for local Synology NAS Surveillance deployment as an option? We will have to wait and see closer to the physical launch.

New Fisheye Camera and 8MP Bullet Camera

(Article Still In Progress)

New Synology Flash NVMe and HDD Hybrid Rackmount (Still Early Development)

(Article Still In Progress)

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      95 thoughts on “The Synology Solution Exhibition 2024 – EVERYTHING Revealed”

      7. Synology is really starting to annoy me with their delayed refresh policy. There’s a growing demand for half-depth rack mount NAS and they haven’t updated their current model in over 3 years. And it seems they’re not even planning to anytime soon. What gives?!?
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      10. We have several 12-bay racks units for O365 backups. Synology gimps themselves with “enterprise” business decisions soft-locking units to their disks which in enterprise terms is a common practise. However even filling up half a 12-bay with high capacity HDDs you hit a brick wall by not having bigger NVME drives for metadata and caching. These drives are at best prosumer quality with sub-par write endurance for the price. We had to swap the SSDs to higher capacity Samsung drives with real enterprise performance and use the db unlock script to get rid of the alarms.

        The DP segment makes sense but the hardware has to catch up to be a credible option.
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      12. qnap been the front runner for a couple years now for my nas. I don’t see that changing soon. I’m a regular consumer maybe prosumer, and I’m not synology’s target customer I don’t think.
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      14. I had problem about my synology nas
        And Steve Baker
        Technical Support Engineer write me about my problem that

        We are sorry to hear that your DS218 has to be reset. This is likely caused by an issue in the DSM operating-system.

        We understand that you are worried about losing your data. Please rest assured, your data should not be affected by the reset as the OS and data are stored in separate partitions on the drives. When re-installing the OS, the system should normally not touch the data-partitions of your drives.
        I beleived and i did what he said now all my data erased omg i shocked after sir Steve Baker dissepeared i am alone there is nothing in my hands
        Synology is regret bad nas choose qnap there isnt good support for problemss !!!
        There is no good service and support becarefullll!!!
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      20. I’m sure Synology is aware of people waiting for updates of the 15xx, 16xx and 18xx models. Why not give them any insight about their plans or even a heads up on when new models can be exepected without further details. I can only think of one reason, but I really hope I’m wrong.
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      22. Who cares about enterprise level stuff …. they are ignoring their core products and user base at a time when competition is getting fiercer. The only they have going for themselves is DSM ….
        All this for nothing because they won’t be able to effectively compete in the enterprise space because that business is all about relationships with customers and on a enterprise level …well they don’t have any.
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      23. Can they connect to Home Assistant or Frigate? Is the protocol open? That more important information for me, do I need a Synology NAS to use them? If it does, then I’m staying with Frigate and TrueNAS 😉
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      24. Synology to SOHO users: “you didn’t like our underpowered overpriced hw, our vendor-lock aspirations, our substandard client software? Well f u, we don’t need you, have a nice day!”
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      33. Good thing you started working with so many other brands. The 4 comments so far pretty much sums it up how many people care about enterprise stuff on YouTube. At least another 10-15 years before enterprise decision makers are coming to YouTube for research. Mostly boomers in those positions right now and they aren’t watching YouTube to buy equipment for their large business.
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      34. Might be an interest for some business users, but in my experiences, such customer might want more flexibility and customisation then this solution can perhaps offer.
        And, again in my experiences, such customer do know their stuff, they don’t need Synology to take away or circumvent those expertises.
        I do expect a few challenges; What when one of those platforms changes, major changes are made, this product likely will need an update/chance? (too)
        What about malware, where the initial backup is clean and you are backing-up an infected source? Any measures taken to check upon the source not being infected?
        Protection is not (only) backing-up IMHO.
        I get the impression they have put on a business-sauce onto an existing solution. And which perhaps might appeal to some customers.
        Making products (and services) that only serve niche customers is nowadays a risky choice. I think.
        Let’s see if this still exists in 3 ~ 4 years time.
        I wonder what Synology is thinking about, what their aim is.
        To simplify things?
        To me it looks like that Synology is aiming for enterprise (full swing), and hopefully such pants are not too big for them. (and keep the braces handy, just in case)
        I look forward to more in-depth information. But with my 20+ years and PT’s of data, the amount of backups I have lost can be counted on a few fingers of a hand…
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      35. Synology appears to be forsaking the bread and butter users, the masses that made Synology what they are. In stead, they are courting the Enterprise market now, seeking the massive profits that come with that market sector.

        Synology need to be careful here. The optics of losing interest in the home/prosumer/SMB market will come back to bite them if users feel abandoned and ignored.
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      36. Data Protection!

        Muahahahahaha hahahahahahaha! We’ll see how long until that “data protection” security is broken and / or circumvented.

        Just another thing to sell to businesses.
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      37. *Update* – Since I recorded and edited this video (both times!) a little more information has arisen about ActiveProtect and the DP series (regarding ActiveBackup, Pricing, and Scope). There will be a follow-up video on this one next week and it will be a very special video! In the meantime, you can watch the full summary video on the Synology 2024 event I made yesterday here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC_gtEGRDJY
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      39. In my business we have a RS1221+ and that’s enough to handle the backups and a couple of dockers images we don’t want to deploy in our on site kubernetes cluster. I am looking at upgrading it, though, and I’m looking at the RS2821+ as a good place to go. But it’s just too old now. And it’s the same for the RS4021xs+ which would also be an option. It bugs me that they don’t have any upgrades for what used to be their core business but seem completely focused on new areas – this is generally not a good sign for a business, whether it is for them or not remains to be seen. Sure, a new RS2824+ (and all the other models that should be updated) isn’t very sexy, but it is overdue – not doing it is a sad statement in itself.
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      40. Can you please clean your phone/camera lenses before filming. Every time you take your phone out to record someting, wipe the lens on your trousers/sleeve. 95% of this video looks like it’s filmed with an inch of Vaseline on the lens!
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      41. I’ve been watching this channel for months debating on a DIY build or just getting a Synology, but was waiting to see some new models, dunno how much longer I’ll wait for them to release a new 4 or 5 bay, was really hoping my first NAS would be running DSM
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      44. I think these are rebadged, the storage would be Seagate, and the switch will be rebadged Cisco or similar. Even the HPE MSA and Dell ME4 are Seagate-based, HPE and others modify the storage management software, features and brand it their own. I’m concerned that Synology constantly falls behind on hardware, with poor excuses for the lack of 2.5gb, 5gb as standard, and rely on improvements in software to carry them, software good, hardware poor.
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      45. It’s nice to see that they’re finally expanding to the enterprise space. Hopefully they do not mess up the roadmap and properly test their features before release rather than to pull the plug after the fact.
        I’ve been bitten once when deploying an additional RS2818RP+ for a customer back in 2020 where the first unit supported 200TB volume (if the memory was upgraded, which we did) but the second unit didn’t because Synology silently removed support for volumes exceeding 108TB in their DSM updates without any notifications.
        They didn’t indicate this change in any release notes or changelogs and we only found out when we had tried to deploy the 2nd unit 6 months later.
        Their support email response literally just amounted to “Welp… We removed the support for larger volumes because there may be some performance issues; good luck” – thankfully, we could still manually create and format the volume via SSH.
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      46. I’m interested in picking up the ds 1821+ and upgrading to 10 gb port and renewed 22 tb seagate ironwolf hhd and using the ssd for cache. It’ll be primarily used as a media storage pool (mp3s and mp4s files will take up roughly 70 tb)
        What would that be the best decision? This is my first Nas purchase, and I have been following your channel for a while now. I feel like you’re the best to ask as a professional who’s unbiased.
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      47. I’m sorry Synology is about to find out what real competition is like…. the fact they think they can go toe to toe with enterprise level vendors is showing me they are utterly delusional. Looks like they dumped on their user base to go in other uncharted directions …. Hello Asustor
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      49. I’m happy to see more cameras. I’m slowly migrating most of my camera fleet (no more Chinese cameras) to Synology. I’m disappointed that they don’t have a PTZ yet. I’ve been very pleased with the image quality and AI features of their cameras. I recently had to replace a dead 4 bay, and got a DS1821+ . I had been waiting for the next 8 bay DS+ to come out, but fate didn’t let me. They still haven’t replaced it yet. So, I don’t feel so bad.
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      50. The trouble dear Mr Synology (or QNAP for example) is that the established Large enterprise storage vendors have decades of experience in their market segment and have done the things you are just providing now, for ever. So why would I choose you? I think you should stick to home user, soho/ super techy user and small business.
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      53. UGH! I need a proper DROBO replacement. A DAS that’s USB 3.2Gen 2 or Thunderbolt 3 or 4 speeds and able to swap out drives as you needed to increase the storage pool. If there is a solution out there I have missed it! Love the coverage, Thanks!
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      54. How to kill your product in 2024 slap a subscription on top. I buy equipment annually for roughly 450k and I’m fed up with all subscriptions. I want to own my own infrastructure.
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      56. O well, time to drop synology for home, im due for drive upgrades so will take the opportunity to build my own nas, time to work, been checking the videos here, many excellent suggestions
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      57. offloading AI to third-party isn’t really a problem, I can easily run LLM locally on a PC/server, definitely more secure/private solution than going some (paid) online service, and easier to scale out than proprietary in-the-box solution
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      58. Still feel like something is going to drop this year for 5-8 bay desktop units, notice the 1522+ and 1821+ aren’t in stock on amazon (as if there is a pause before the new models come into play)
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      65. Synology can’t talk about their prosumer products because it’s a very competitive market. The new intel and amd product line will have a hard impact on what’s to come. There are more than enough enterprise and consumers out there that Synology won’t want to lose. They have to be quiet until release date. It’s just smart business tbh.
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      69. Thanks for the video, but disappointing as prosumer. Was hoping for a DS1825+, but if doesn’t come soon will look at other options. Nice to see a 4K camera but prefer turrets.
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      70. I was hoping for a refresh on the 8 bay 1821+. Maybe they still will. I also understand the big money is in mid to large corporate solutions so maybe they just focused on that and will still do a refresh for us small prosumers.
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      74. So business-friendly that I’m still waiting for Active Backup for Business to support Debian 12 that was released a year ago. Being so far behind the notoriously slow Debian release cycle takes some serious neglect…..
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      75. I guess they are okay with the likes of ugreen taking over the home and small business market with their lack of offerings for that area and lack of competitive price/performance.
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      77. did it feel like there was a gap in the exhibition where small business NAS solutions could have been presented? I could imagine that Synology is rethinking their upcomming devices on the hardware side due to the emerging competition.
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      82. So, in short, no (hardware) refresh for the consumer nor promuser nor SMB from Synology. (for the moment?)
        And they are aiming for enterprise more & more, so it seems. Plus (optional) subscriptions.
        (to me a personal a rabbit-hole I try to avoid, but inevitable nowadays, where you own nothing)
        I am an enterprise user but to date I really have not seen appealing arguments that would make me re-consider Synology, sorry!
        I will watch their stream(s) to find out more details.
        But I guess no golden nuggets from Synology.
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      88. I wonder what AI used in this way will mean for communication. I mean, what’s the point if you receive an informal e-mail from a friend that was written by a computer?
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      92. It would be great if there was something like an AI firewall, AI antivirus and other security applications where AI would identify an attack and be able to take actions to defend the system and data, without user involvement and 24/7.
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      94. I like this as part of Synology Office and mail. That’s where I see AI being the most useful today. Now all they need is a neuromorphic chip or built in accelerator to push this AI to the edge and have it built into the NAS. Kind of like our spell checkers. You have one locally on your pc that works w/o a network connection in a word processor, then for a larger library it can connect to a server if a network connection is available. If “AI” doesn’t blow out like “Blockchain” and crash like Crypto (All FADS do). Then in 10 years we will see it built into our office devices. I wonder what sort of NEW security concerns this will bring about? I can see it being banned or highly restricted in government use.
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