We Built A “Private Cloud Storage”. Here’s What To Know Before Attempting

Malaysia is blessed to have relatively affordable and easy access to the internet. With almost everything now doable online from banking to applying for government documents, everyone can enjoy the ease of carrying out personal chores with just the click of a button.

In the era of digital cameras and smartphones, this also means being able to record our memories easily. However, that means we need higher data storage space for our photos, videos and such.

Luckily, there are many ways to safely back up your data from your devices such as your smartphones and computers.

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Best Way To Store Your Memories? 

Most users know about public cloud storage, which is essentially an online space to store your data once you are connected to the service app and portal. 

Today, many cloud storage service providers offer free storage space so we can experience seamless, wireless backups and data storage. 

But free storage space is often limited in capacity such as up to 15GB. So what happens when you run out of cloud storage? Well, you’ll need to pay for access to bigger data storage, which can cost you up to a few hundred Ringgits per year.

Also; since free cloud storage space is limited, making backups for your data might be tricky if you have a lot to store. In fact, many argue that three soft-copy backups plus one offsite copy are recommended. 

So, do we forget about cloud servers and just rely on our hard disk drive? Not yet! 

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Introducing: Your Own Private Cloud Storage

Built around the needs for reliability, ultimate security and organisation; brands like Synology have taken on the mission to protect the world’s data. It is through this vision that Synology took to create the perfect Network Attached Storage (NAS) products.

So What is a Network Attached Storage (NAS)?

Synology specialises in ‘Private Servers’ aka NAS appliances. These products, in short, are private storage servers that are perfect for families and small business groups to own themselves (physically). 

Like public cloud storage services, NAS allows multiple users at once, connected to the same network, to manage their own data safely on their own premises. Think of it as a group of people “physically owning” the centralised drive, safely located within their reach. 

Because you own this private unit, no third party (and even Synology) can interfere with your data. 

Using NAS vs. Public Cloud Storage

• You pay a one-time fee to own a NAS, versus a few hundred Ringgit subscription fees annually for public clouds.
• You keep and are in control of your own data as well as its backup copies. 
• You can organize your data however you want for your backups.
• You can periodically back up your data even with encryption.

Check out what our video editor thinks of Synology's NAS units!

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If privacy is a huge thing for you, a NAS appliance is perfect for you and your family, small business and even friends. 

Want more reasons or insight about owning a NAS unit? We break it down here for you!

5 Reasons to Own a NAS Unit:

1. Uploading and backing up data is fast

Unlike cloud storage servers, backing up a lot of data at once with a NAS is much faster. 

Because most cloud storage servers need a huge bandwidth to send data wirelessly, doing backups can be long and tedious. Meanwhile, you can upload or backup data in a shorter time frame onto a NAS unit since the devices and computers are directly connected to it.

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2. It’s cheaper in the long run 

Pricing is important if you’re going to rely on something to safeguard your property for a long time. Luckily, NAS is cheaper than Public Cloud Storage services when it comes to fee of ownership. 

Imagine this; you and your family (of 5) are better off using individual cloud storage. When it comes to owning storage above 5TB, the pricing can be subjected to as high as RM50 per month, per user. 

With Synology’s NAS; while you’ll need to spend more to own the unit, this will be a one-time fee for storage access as high as 50TB. And that’s usable for multiple users at once!

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3. Critical data is safe from any third-party access

Well, since you own the physical unit and you get to choose where to secure it, you have better control over security and permission features when it comes to accessing data.

This means you can decide who has access to your data via the permission setting option. Yes, even Synology won’t be able to get your data! 

Not to mention; Synology’s NAS software allows you to encrypt your backup folders too!

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4. No need to rely on internet connection or service disruption

Because a third party handles your storage on a public cloud, issues and updates to servers can cause workflow disruption. Imagine if you need to send out an important notice, only to find out that you cannot access the latest version of materials.

With a NAS, you are in control of everything which makes it more reliable. A NAS unit allows multiple users and applications (that are authorised by you) to access data remotely.

Moreover, using a NAS like Synology’s means backups are also done how often you want whether it’s fortnightly or once a week. In short; if you ever have an internet or network disruption, you and other users can still safely access information.

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5. More control over the backup system

NAS shines here when it comes to how often you want to automatically back up your data from any device you have. Say if you’re a user of devices with different operating systems be it Windows, Android or Apple; NAS centralises backup and makes it easy for all users to copy and share data. 

For Synology NAS units, just make sure you have an account with Synology, connect your devices to the unit, and start backing up copies as well as accessing all of your data from any device.

Not to mention, these copies can be backed-up periodically and incrementally however often you want.

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“So we tried out Synology. Here is our review.” 

It doesn’t make sense if all we ever did was talk about how convenient using Synology’s NAS is. So let us show you what Tarvin, our video editor, thinks in his mini Synology NAS review.

Usability:

It’s nice and expected that Synology NAS devices can be used safely to store massive file sizes easily from anywhere as long as the devices are connected to the internet. But the nicest part isn’t that concurrent users can store and access files at a time. 

What keeps us at peace was that the Synology devices come with failsafe features. For example; in the event of storage corruption or damage, files can be quickly moved to the other hard drives installed in the NAS. 

This is hugely beneficial for production studios such as ProductNation’s video team due to the need to constantly archive all footage for storage space. Even for the editorial team; we can easily access images and other materials for the site.

Security:

Here’s where Synology shines compared to many other NAS providers and public cloud storage providers. 

All Synology devices have security features like the necessary need to enter an ID as well as Password before accessing the storage. This is an additional layer of security protection which is useful and a must-have implementation in a business network. 

Other than that, Synology’s NAS units have a range of security features like Dos protection, Secure SignIn, 2-Factor Authentication, Password expiration as well as strength rules, user permission settings, and more.

Ease of Set Up & Use:

Most non-tech savvy users fear the complication of things, which is why many of us opt for cloud storage services in the first place.

But our video editor assures that Synology’s NAS devices are super easy to set up. Upon getting the NAS unit out of the box, there are clear-cut guides to get it up and running from start to finish.

All one needs to do is just follow the guides and prompts that appear on your computer’s screen once the unit is hooked up to the internet (like how you do for your computer). 

Expanding storage is also easy as you can just slide out the hard drive tray, put a new hard drive in, and the NAS software will do all the work for you.

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Our verdict

Synology’s NAS devices are a MUST GET especially for those of you who are in the creative field and work with large file sizes. 

Indirectly, the devices promote ease of collaborative work since everyone can access and edit the files on the NAS. This makes the hassle of buying multiple external hard drives a thing of the past as having one unit for every user is quite expensive. 

Not to mention, having to do your own manual backups is tiring. This means the chances of your backup in a hard drive failure or being misplaced/mislabeled are much higher. Meanwhile, if you use a NAS, it automates backup sessions for you.

Buy: Synology DiskStation NAS in Malaysia

A NAS appliance is something many users don’t realise they need but actually do. Not sure where to start? We simplify and break it down to you which NAS appliance is for you. 

SALES ALERT:

Synology will also be having special promotions from 9th to 16th September 2022 on Shopee Malaysia. Remember to check in and catch exclusive deals for bigger discounts on Synology products!

Get Promo

Disclaimer: All prices are reflective of the ones shown on Synology’s Official Shopee Store.

[This post is made in collaboration with Synology Malaysia.]