Synology DSM 7 Review Part 4 – Business Applications & Conclusion

 

—- Synology DSM 7.0 Review Contents —-

Synology DSM 7 Review – ALL PARTS

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-0-full-review

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 1 – GUI, Settings & Storage

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-1-user-interface-settings-storage-management

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 2 – Multimedia & Backups

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-2-multimedia-backup-management

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 3 – Cloud Gateways, Active Insight and CMS

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-3-cloud-gateways-active-insight-and-cms

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 4 – Business Applications & Conclusion

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-4-business-applications-conclusion

 

Synology DSM 7 Review – Business Applications

Synology has spent the last few years retooling and ramping up the range of modern business and network storage applications in DSM, clearly making 1st party software and services a HUGE priority. Alot of these upgrades and changes to the key software took place in the last 3 years as DSM 6.2 became established and although in some cases DSM 7.0 has applied a few improvements in the UI of each of them, they remain largely the same in DSM7 as they did to their DSM 6.2 versions. One that has become a big part of the Synology architecture for business is Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and although little change is apparent, I will highlight though that recent upgrades in VMM in conjunction with Active backup have significant improved how the software can import/migrate existing VMware/Hyper-V environments that are backed up to be mounted within the Synology VMM system.

Likewise, the ability to export your existing virtual machine or virtual conversion/image of an existing bare metal machine to the Synology VMM platform is still incredibly straightforward, as seen in my guide to test Windows 11 as a VM on a Synology NAS Video in less than 15mins.

The Surveillance platform on DSM is another area that has received very few visible changes in DSM7, with perhaps the background responsiveness and latency being tweaked in the browser in line with the DSM7 kernel improvements. The Surveillance Station application still runs like an absolute hero in the browser and desktop client application on DSM7 just as it did on DSM 6.2, with full access, configuration and control to all your camera feeds via a Chrome browser as you would like in a local app!

Indeed, even when I tested DSM 7 on a remarkably low powered and low hardware equipped system like the DS120j (2 Core ARM CPU and 512MB memory), Surveillance Station 8.2 ran perfectly well and that was with the more memory-hungry DSM 7 running on it. See how DSM 7 and surveillance, media and storage management ran on this incredibly modest NAS system (along with others) in the videos below

 

 

Finally, there is the Synology Collaboration suite of applications (a few already mentioned) that, although not changed a great deal from DSM 6.2>DSM7.0 with the exception of Synology Drive, are still mighty impressive to be included with your NAS drive purchase. These applications include:

First-Party Applications included with your NAS system
Synology Office – Create documents, spreadsheets, and slides in a multi-user environment. Real-time synchronization and saving make collaboration a breeze.

Synology Chat – Aimed at businesses, Synology Chat is an IM service that transforms the way users collaborate and communicate.

Synology Drive – Host your own private cloud behind the safety of your NAS with 100% data ownership and no subscription fees.

Synology Calendar – Stay on track, share calendars, and schedule meetings, while ensuring sensitive information remains safely stored on company premises.

Again, although these applications have not received a significant change between DSM 6.2 and DSM 7, it is still worth highlighting that Synology is STILL the only brand out there that provides BOTH the hardware server system AND a full collaboration suite of applications that can rival that of Microsoft Office 365 and Google. Even if you choose to remain with DSM 6.2, you cannot really fault Synology for developing and releasing this range of applications and including them in your NAS software package a no additional cost – I just wish this was extended to other areas of the more recent DSM7 services, as I am convinced it would make their integrations into even low-level NAS network environments more palatable and home users make the switch more readily.

Synology DSM 7 Review – Conclusion

Unsurprisingly I have almost exclusively positive things to say about DSM 7. Throughout the years of development, this upgrade to diskstation manager has maintained a high standard of quality and features at each level and each beta preview stage, with this final product living up to ALMOST all of its promises. There are still a few key features that have yet to arrive, such as drive failure prediction and promise Mac OS support in Synology drive (file pinning, streaming) and support of Mac OS in active-backup, but practically all other promises have been maintained and DSM 7 does the impressive job of almost immediately making you feel that DSM 6.2 is dated -not a small task. Additionally, it is hard to forget that DSM 7.0 is equivalent to an entire operating system and some users are quick to forget that this is included within the cost of your NAS Purchase, so when the hardware warranty of a NAS system passes (2, 3 or 5 years) the software warranty and support continues for years and years after, with DSM 7.0 giving way to DSM 7.1 and onwards. So, it is hard to be critical of software and services that will likely change and improve over time.

That said, there are things that I think Synology DSM 7 could perhaps improve upon, the steadily more open move by Synology to graduate out of SOHO/SMB NAS and into the Enterprise and HyperScale data center environments has the potential to leave those lesser user tiers getting left behind. This is amplified when several of these new DSM 7 and new-gen services arrive with restricted or paid subscription-based models at the ground level (like HybridShare only supporting their own cloud, Active Insight being a paid subscription service and Synology C2 not having a free tier at a smaller GB bracket). Synology DSM 7.0 is of benefit to ALL users and the vast improvements in responsiveness, design, security and further tweaks to the UX for ALL users cannot be understated – it’s a triumph. Likewise the storage improvements, inclusive collaboration suite, Surveillance tools, VM manager and integration with 3rd party cloud in most areas is 10/10 for me. The lack of support of USB devices, missing config of Photo Station and the where Synology stand on 3rd party applications in DSM 7.0 still seems a little murky, but it’s still very early into DSM 7.0s life to make sweeping judgements on these. Overall, I like it, DSM 7.0 is almost perfect!

 

PROs of DSM 7.0 CONs of DSM 7.0
Genuinely Impressive Latency

Very Appealing GUI

Unbeatable First Party App Support

Near Perfect Single EcoSystem

Makes DSM 6.2 Look Dated

Fast RAID Repair and RAID6 Improvements

Surveillance, VMs, Backups and Media Handling all still 10/10

Feels JUST as Secure & Safe as Ever

Hyper Backup & Cloud Sync Still Support MANY Clouds

Active Insight, Active Backup, C2 & HybridShare = Business Win

 Reduced USB Support Currently

Some 3rd Party Applications have not migrated well

Synology Photos Still Lacks some Photo Station Services

Hybrid Share ONLY Supports Synology C2 (Paid Sub)

Occasional Conflict of DSM 6.2 to DSM 7 Designs at times

Synology Drive File Pining & Active Backup Still not Available for Mac

 

 

—- Synology DSM 7.0 Review Contents —-

Synology DSM 7 Review – ALL PARTS

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-0-full-review

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 1 – GUI, Settings & Storage

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-1-user-interface-settings-storage-management

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 2 – Multimedia & Backups

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-2-multimedia-backup-management

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 3 – Cloud Gateways, Active Insight and CMS

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-3-cloud-gateways-active-insight-and-cms

Synology DSM 7 Review Part 4 – Business Applications & Conclusion

https://nascompares.com/synology-dsm-7-review-part-4-business-applications-conclusion

 

 

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      111 thoughts on “Synology DSM 7 Review Part 4 – Business Applications & Conclusion”

      1. This video is fake. I can not even log in my 220J NAS, synology scam us with J and 7…. dsm system, Do not buy any J synology , or if just use less than 7 system. DSM 6 works fine.
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      14. Sad to say it seems to no longer work as at least on my DS920+ it says it does not meet the requirements to run windows-11 I am sure the pre-retail versions did not have strict requirements which is why it worked for you,. Lucky for me I still had an old windows10 ISO and used that instead.
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      17. For music that you could play, No Copyright Sound (or is it Songs?) or NCS shouldn’t give you any trouble with YouTube. Along the same lines, The Blender foundation or someone releases “movies” under similar license terms. Big Buck Bunny is a pretty good example of that.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      18. I am thinking about getting a DS220+ for a dedicated home security system. I would have 3-4 4K cameras. I would upgrade the memory to 6 GB since I have a spare 4 GB. Would the DS220+ be sufficient for this task? I already have a DS-918+ for other NAS tasks.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      22. I’m about to buy my first NAS, this very one, ds220+, not even for myself, it’s actually for my dad and man!… Amazon feedbacks are exilarating! The amount of people putting you off buying because of their shitty 1 to 2 stars conplains about noise, can’t navigate the OS, or straight out malfunction from factory is enormous for a product and brand that I’m convinced it’s really good. One thing though, a customer did complain about his unit becomming unusable after DSM 7 upgrade and since those 2 gigs of RAM sound really tiny for 2021 I did worry for a moment there and many are complaining also about Synology support being slow and useless. Can anyone confirm?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      24. My DS200j was updated to DSM 7 and it sucks. Transfer speed dropped from 110ΜΒ/s to 10MB/s and it is soooo slow. I updated based on this video and now my NAS is useless…
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      25. So I am really confused here. I use my 220j almost entirely for streaming videos. If that is the only thing it is doing is DSM 7.0 a mistake or not? Experiences SEEM to go both ways but no opinions from people that have updated to 7.0 are straight in whether it is ok.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      27. I was planning on setting up a NAS early 2022 and had chosen the 920+ but I’m hoping there’s an upgraded replacement but can’t seem to find any reliable product news. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      29. After updating my ds220j to 7 its so slow , could be due to photos indexing?
        should I backup my phone photos again or move photos ( that already been backed up by ds file app ) to the folder that used by photos app?
        Thanks
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      36. No one talks about the fact that facial recognition is removed on those J devices.
        It was there on moments.
        Synology photos is not such a big upgrade compared to moments.

        I have seen many reviews but no one seems to mention facial recognition
        WHY?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      38. I’ve been waiting for this video!
        Do you know if DSM 7 affects the transfer speed over the 10G network? I now on the old DSM get up to 8.9 Gbs and was wondering if the new DSM would speed it up any?
        Also if adding additional drives is any faster? For example going from 6 to 8 drives, will it take days again or hours as promised in their marketing videos?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      40. @NASCompares Hi bro, I didn’t see in video the TPM mandatory option for Win 11. Does this mean installation is possible without TPM module?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      41. We use mostly qnap’s, but do have one or two synology’s. We have migrated some of our Windows file server data storage requirements to a few of the qnap’s due to running out of storage on the windows servers. Do you find the synology or qnap better as a file server replacement? I am integrating AD and the qnap’s seem to be handling it fine, but I must admit I’m losing sleep. It’s odd to move away from the Windows servers, but the NAS solution is just easy and I can update / reboot domain controllers and servers without affecting data access. Would love to hear your thoughts and see a video on setting them up as file servers.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      45. Please help me: Tried loading DSM 7 on my DS920+ currently on ver. DSM 6.2 to just test use it on VMM. While trying to load the correct file: “DSM_DS920+_41890.pat” I got this error message: An error occurred while creating the (DSM) image. [DS920Plus – VM storage 1] The installation file is incompatible (?!) Please make sure you have selected the correct file to upload.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      52. Your my main YouTuber I watch about Synology NAS. I am new to using them. I have purchased a DS918+ upgrade to 8gb of ram and two 512gb of NVMe Samsung evo in read only cashe. I also have 4 iron wolf 10tb drives. I mainly use this as a Plex server. Would upgrading to DSM 7.0 be a good idea with this device? Just looking for some pro advice. Thanks.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      55. My 214+ dont wok Run DSM 7RC.lt ls all to slow backup not possible must gå l back to DSM 6.2.4 Funktion in multimedia mpg playback !!! Scary upgrade no backup!!! Speed lt up ????
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      58. Vielen Dank! Wie immer, a good video to help “normal” users to better understand the functions of a NAS. Myself I have a 920+ and I love it. Viele Grüße, Stephan
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      64. I would think videos of how it will run on older nas’s would be more useful, Synology would be making a huge cock-up if the new os didn’t run on the lasted nas’s
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      71. Is there support for Active-Active Synology AD with Windows AD in same domain and be able this way to migrate from Windows AD do Synology AD?
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      74. I know its an odd idea, but it would be interesting to see how DSM7 would run comparing the DS920+ only against the DS918+, or other comparable NAS of the same spot on the ladder, but of different versions, showing the hardware differences and how DSM7 does between them.
        Is there a difference because of the processor or other hardware differences?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      77. Thank you for your video about this NAS. im for sure go upgrade it to DSM7 i need only to find a way to backup all.. im not sure if i can just upgrade and it will leave just all my Data on the HHD’s 🙂 Thanks again.. great video !!
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      79. I don’t like that they eliminated support for usb devices in 7.0.. it’s bad enough that they don’t support 10gb networking directly in 920 but now they don’t support it via usb either even with third party drivers… on this alone I won’t be going to 7.0. Kinda a shame
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      81. I gave up on Synology NAS, so I bought a Dell R720 and made that into a NAS BOX. Granted mines Twice the price of synology, but I have 16 cores, 32 treads @3.3Ghz, 192GB of 1866 Ram and 32Tb of storage with dual (redundant) power supplies.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      82. @NASCompares Thank you for these videos. I find them really helpful. I was wondering if your filesystem was formatted with ext4 or BTRFS. With the DS220+ model is there a major difference between filesystem performance in Surveillence Station on DSM7?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      83. After deciding not to build a TrueNAS in an old computer case, I have been following to try to id my preferred solution. My DS 920+ is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and this video is extremely timely for me.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      86. I use the 920+ with 2 IronWolf 4tb nas drives for household storage and Plex. Will I stress my drives if I use it for storing my feeds for 2 wyze cams as well?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      87. For a moment, I thought the DS220+ was performing better than the DS920+
        I have the DS920+ and waiting before to upgrade, but seeing this video, I’m wondering if I should not upgrade also the RAM.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      91. please tell me the fastest way to get a photo library (Apple imac) of about 540gigs over to my ds2020j from a usb drive. tried photo station but has a limit of 1000 photos at at time, the ds2020j doesn’t have a copy button,
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      92. I finally bought a NAS (a DS220+ even!) and this will actually be my first one. Been watching some of your videos while I wait for Amazon to get the unit here (of course the drives will be here tomorrow). So it sounds like DSM 7 would be stable enough to throw on the unit tight out of the gate, then?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      100. If I use my station only as a mapped network drive. Should I just keep older DSM? I’m concerned only about security.
        I’m on DS220J

        P.S. Thanks to you I’m working now with Synology equipment and it is so easy to use. Great help from you.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      105. You always apologize for the background noise but as a regular viewer I can tell you I almost never hear a thing. Great work as always. We appreciate it.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      106. I migrated from google photos to synology photos. I experience the problem that some pictures don’t have the correct meta data. It takes the files from the upload time to synology. I made albums in google photo like year 2018 and downloaded it like that. Consequently, there were no separate json files. Can you help?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      109. @NASCompares My big issue is the hibernation. After upgrade to DSM 7 RC, my disks are waking up every hour. I didn’t define any task in DSM 6.2.4 and still I am facing this hourly wake up after upgrade
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

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