There is still love for the prosumer, the roots of the brand, but you can see the attention shifting to larger companies and enterprises.

When you say Synology, you automatically think of one or more compact NAS devices hanging around somewhere in your home or office. Connected to the Internet, running quietly to keep all your data safe. The brand has made a name for itself in the prosumer market.

Twenty years after the first DiskStation NAS with its own operating system and user-friendly web interface, you can see that the focus is shifting. They haven’t forgotten their target group, the range within the DS series remains extensive and the models are renewed every 2-3 years, but the love is shifting.

Admittedly, a snapshot during Computex doesn’t say anything about the brand, but when two of the three announcements are specifically aimed at the enterprise segment, that says something.

Synology ActiveProtect

The main announcement that is grabbing all the attention is Synology ActiveProtect. This solution is a dedicated backup environment focused on protecting data in critical infrastructures. Key focus points for the brand: speed, ease of use and cost-effectiveness.

ActiveProtect allows you to quickly and scalably deploy additional backup storage space, both at the edge and in data centers. Everything is centrally managed through a web interface with a scalable operating system on the back. Load balancing is done automatically within the device network. According to Synology, configuring a new node takes no more than ten minutes.

A completely new product line aimed at larger mid-sized companies and the enterprise segment. With subscription after the first year for additional post-sale revenue. Something you don’t have with a conventional NAS.

GS6200 and new C2 cameras

Two other things were announced at Computex. One of them focuses mainly on the enterprise market: Synology GS6200. To keep up with the ever-increasing amount of data in SMBs and companies, Synology is launching a new series: GS.

In total, you can create clusters of up to 96 nodes, yielding more than 20 PB of raw data per cluster. You need at least three GS6200 devices to form a cluster. Each time you add another device, capacity and processing power scale simultaneously. Synology Drive supports up to 150,000 different users on a maximum scaled cluster of 96 nodes.

Finally, there were the new security cameras and special C2 compatible cameras for which you no longer need a NAS. Simply connect to the network and, if you wish, take out a subscription to park all your recordings in detail in the cloud.

Enterprise two, prosumer one. See you there for all the announcements at Computex.

More entrepreneurship than you think

In a conversation with Jia-Yu Liu, Executive Vice President at Synology, our assumption remains correct. “60 percent of our sales today come from the enterprise segment.” With the new announcements, it is clear that the brand wants to further expand this segment.

“Did you know that half of the Fortune 500 companies use Synology hardware?” With this quote, Michael Richard Wang, Corporate Marketing Manager at Synology, shows once again how important the enterprise segment is to them and what they still want to achieve.

How do they plan to continue to conquer the business market? “Easy to use and cost-effective,” says Jia-Yu Liu. He wants to let the devices do the work, they are the best advertisement for new organizations. “Everything can start with a small Active Backup solution in a small setup. A good experience? Then the new hardware takes the step up to ActiveProtect.”

Grow faster

Word of mouth is Synology’s main strategy. Let the products do the talking. The company grows every year, but not explosively. That is not possible with such a strategy. It now seems that Synology has bigger plans and wants to grow by 30 percent for five years starting in 2024. To achieve this, it is relying on the AI ​​boost.

That’s why the announcement of the Synology GS6200 is important: an ideal foundation to make all data available for training AI models. The demand for data continues to grow, which presents opportunities.

All in all, you can see that if Synology wants to grow faster, the enterprise market needs to become a priority. This is not wrong in itself, as long as it does not leave its prosumer customers out in the cold. This stable base is in place today and can be an important stepping stone. Today, small companies can become big companies. It is up to Synology to embed itself ever more deeply in the business world, big or small.