DiskStation is a line of network-attached storage (NAS) solutions from Synology headquartered in Taiwan.
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Veeam Data Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Veeam’s® premier product, Veeam Backup & Replication™, delivers availability for all cloud, virtual, Kubernetes and physical workloads. Through a management console, the software provides backup, archival, recovery and replication capabilities.
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Synology DiskStation
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$428
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I have a Qnap, and I hate it compared to Synology. Synology is the easy button of a NAS. You can literally have it all up and running, configured, and backing up servers in 30 minutes. I have not used it for cameras, but I hear it's great. My qnap just sits in a box now, won't …
Veeam Data Platform has much better capabilities and options for backups and a friendlier GUI. We found with Datto that we hit a wall in functionality of what we were trying to provide to the company.
I've used Unitrends most recently. I really love Unitrends and tried to switch this last time I renewed support for Veeam Data Platform; however, it was not cost effective. Unfriends would have cost 4 times as much as Veeam Data Platform. As for the others, the features of …
The Synology DiskStation is well suited as a NAS solution, easy enough to mirror a Windows file server shares setup. Access to the Hyperbackup utility eliminates the need to purchase a tape backup solution. A portable USB drive can be used as the initial backup target. For air gap purposes can connect Hyperbackup to the various cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, GCP to copy backup data there. Utilizing it as a backup solution has also been great, instead of purchasing a tape solution, tapes and an offsite tape repository. Active Backup for Business is another excellent backup utility for physical servers, VMWare virtual machines, etc. Restoring files is fairly intuitive. Until Synology introduced the dual controller setup, using it as a SAN was less appropriate as there was occasional downtime when the controller had an issue but this was less important for the scenarios we were using it for. It would be more of a concern if we had used it for things that require more robust uptime requirements. Overall we are happy with the features of the Synology DiskStation.
I have been a Sysadmin for 3 decades and have used all manner of backup software and systems. I'm now at a place where our needs are not all that great, but my experience with other platforms has allowed the company greater flexibility in restores and, more importantly, in testing and quality assurance of our in-house software. As a small company, we have relatively simple needs, and Veeam has met all of our requirements, so I cannot say that they are deficient in any way.
Synology DiskStation offers lots of options for creating links to share files or request that some uploads files. It makes it really easy to just share a link that can have an expiration or a set number of times it is accessed.
We always had enough storage on our Synology DiskStation, we never had to worry about something being too big to upload or share.
Love how you can create folders that are shared and also have some that are private. This makes it so easy to have shared collaborations with coworkers or clients, but also allows you to have a private place to save things that only you need.
Veeam stands out among backup solutions because of its ability to work with almost any storage type. For example, only a small portion of backup solutions will support catalyst stores, Veeam does.
Veeam is extremely flexible when it comes to setting it up. I had a network recently that limited ethernet connectivity between the Veeam VM and the backup repository and Veeam handled it easily.
Day-to-day use of Veeam is very simple. It is easy to train our technicians to use it proficiently in a very short amount of time.
Our Veeam VMs don't have issues very often, but the one or two times I have called for support, they answered right away, and the technicians assisting us were knowledgeable about their products.
While BTRFS is a more advanced file system than ext4, it also is in a perpetual state of development, with many features not fully functional and a plethora of bugs. Synology has managed to overcome many of these limitations by placing BTRFS on top of a LVM, but there are much better file systems that Synology could have used, such as OpenZFS.
DSM's built-in backup software, HyperBackup, while robust, oftentimes runs into issues. Specifically, backups can be working fine for months or years, and then suddenly the backups will fail. Sometimes these failures can be resolved, but oftentimes the backups need to be completely restarted. Fortunately, even when the backup fails, the existing backups are still accessible, it is just that new backups can not be performed.
The underlying Linux OS provides significant benefits, but also adds a fair amount of complexity. Most of that complexity is wonderfully hidden by the DSM interface, but when certain problems arise, delving into the Linux command line is not out of the question.
Perhaps the biggest issue with Synology DiskStation is Synology's support. The issue isn't that the support is bad, but it can be frustratingly slow when dealing with a major issue. Synology does have a very active community that is always willing to help, but nothing beats first-party support.
A change to the interface for mounting then recovering individual files or folders feels clunky but it's the only complaint about the software. It works, the process just isn't as smooth as I'd like.
An inline product update from an update button rather than going to the Veeam page to download a new setup file would be pretty slick, not a deal breaker by any means though
It would be pretty neat to have an inline tech support data upload, provide a ticket number and have the support upload go directly to Veeam rather than taking that archive file and uploading it to the ticket via the web portal
As long as Synology give us support for our hard drivers we will not change. I know Synology has now forced their hands to buy their own hard drivers and their new line of products. But if we still have support for old hard drivers from other manufacturers then we will still use Synology Nas. Otherwise we change manufacturers
I have used many other data backup products that are on the market. I trust the configuration options within Veeam to do as they are labeled, without any specific back end software changes that may cause backups to fail if you don't use a systems integrator.
I trust the product for my own home environment as well due to relationship I have with the product at work.
The Synology DiskStation is easy to set up and manage. The interface is clean and features are well documented. These units are reliable and can be set up to do scheduled integrity checks so failures can be mitigated before they halt business operations. The available packages for expanded roles makes these devices versatile.
Veeam is fairly simple in terms of how it is set up; its not an overly-complicated dashboard that can be intimidating to less technically-inclined users. Veeam also offers good instructional videos to help users work through how to do specific functions. I appreciate that they have specific video tutorials rather than having users scroll through a cumbersome manual.
I give Veeam Data Platform a rating of 9 for availability because it consistently performs reliably in critical data protection and recovery tasks. The platform is designed to minimize downtime, ensuring that backup and recovery processes are accessible when needed.While there may be rare instances of maintenance or minor application errors, these do not significantly affect the overall reliability of the system. Veeam’s strong architecture and features like high availability configurations further enhance its performance, allowing us to trust it in crucial situations. Overall, it has proven to be a dependable solution that meets our organization's needs effectively.
To identify a bottleneck in the data path, Veeam Backup & Replication detects the component with the maximum workload, the component that works for the most time of the job. For example, you use a low-speed storage device as the backup repository. Even if VM data is retrieved from the SAN storage on the source side and transported over a high-speed link, VM data flow will still be impaired at the backup repository.
Unfortunately, the one time I've had to reach out to DiskStation support, it did not go well. My NAS appliance wasn't appearing on the network, and no matter what the support team tried, they could not get it back online. Instead of offering to send me a new unit, they told me to go buy a new one - obviously, this was a disappointing response and not very eco-friendly either! Fortunately, through some internet research of my own, and some ingenuity, I figured out I could restore my NAS to factory settings by removing all the drives and resetting. Only then did I realize I had a bad disk. I had to experiment for a while to figure out which one it was. Once I had done that, though, I was able to get the latest DiskStation loaded back on, no thanks to the DiskStation support crew. If notifications were rock solid, I suspect I would have caught the bad disk before it because an OS problem, but I never received a bad-disk notification.
All support cases were solved in a timely manner and there was no unnecessary communication needed to get the answers that were needed to solve the issue. Also the mail communication after closing support cases id on point without too much nagging for feedback or reviews of the completed support tickets.
I rated the in-person training an 8 because it was generally effective and provided a solid foundation for understanding the Veeam Data Platform. The instructors were knowledgeable and engaged, making the sessions interactive. However, I felt that some topics could have been covered in more depth, and additional hands-on exercises would have further reinforced the learning experience. Overall, it was a positive training session that adequately prepared attendees for using the product, but there's room for improvement.
I gave it a rating of 7 because, although the online training offered valuable content and covered the essential aspects of the Veeam Data Platform, it lacked interactivity and opportunities for direct engagement with instructors. This made it challenging to ask questions or delve deeper into specific topics. Additionally, some sections felt a bit rushed, which could hinder a comprehensive understanding of more complex features. Overall, while the training was useful, improvements in interactivity and pacing could elevate the experience significantly.
Plan the process and then work through your plan, i know this should go without saying but its easy to get sidetracked. You tend to want to just get up and running so you can have that sigh of relief, spend the time to talk to your business stakeholder to see what goals they are trying to accomplish and how that may impact your plans first.
Synology DiskStation packs a punch with the latest and greatest feature set which goes above and beyond many other vendors. It allows for a turn-key solution to cover almost every use case in the SMB market leaving other vendors behind.
Historically, it's been the lowest cost per feature. Easiest to use, lowest cost to maintain, and vast in the things it keeps adding in its feature set. It was just a vmware only backup utility, but now it does baremetal, cloud, NAS (like qnap/synology). Veeam Data Platform which is the monitoring side of it also gives great insights.
In terms of scalability for our company, Veeam was able to cover our backup needs with ease. They have options for even more individualized backup if we were to need them; i.e. if a specific workstation needs its own independent backup. We have not used these resources yet, but I am confident they will be beneficial to our company in the near future.
