“We want to thank our users from all around the world for their participation and enthusiasm toward DSM and Synology products, paving the way for a more integrated and secured private cloud solution,” says Alex Wang, chief executive officer of Synology Inc.

This latest release from Synology comes after six-weeks of beta testing from its user-base, and comes on the back of a raft of integrated development with its networked attached storage (NAS) devices. The company says the features of 5.1 and its paired hardware systems are a result of rapidly growing demand worldwide for ‘ultra-reliable and safe’ storage devices from both home and business users.

“We are a young, energetic, and forward thinking company. Our goal is simply to stay ahead of the game with the technology we are producing at our head office in Taiwan, where hundreds of engineers are pushing the limits of what is possible with cloud-storage and its management,” says Joanne Plummer, marketing manager (UK, Ireland, and Scandinavia), Synology UK.

Plummer continues: “It is all about the continue development of our software, forensic analysis of new technologies and advances coming on stream, as well as making sure we react very quickly to any feedback from our customers.”

With a huge research and testing programme worldwide, Synology says that of all the criteria on performance that are fed back to the company, paramount is the issue of cast-iron reliability.

“Every business today has digital storage needs, and for businesses such as sign-makers, wide-format print specialists, and commercial print houses, this is growing every day,” explains Plummer, who adds: “The reasons for this is that design and production systems are able to handle much larger file sizes, such as graphics files, improving the overall quality of output.

“Personalisation is another key factor here, with large databases of customer information often needing to be stored securely and accessed quickly for individual campaigns and projects. And because the users vary widely in their technical ability, the user interface of systems such as Synology DSM 5.1 need to be very easy to use, yet capable of high-levels of complexity when needed.”

Plummer goes onto claim that less than 0.5percent of its hardware products are now sent back with actual faults. She adds that this illustrative reliability figure, combined with the raft of new features on DSM 5.1 (see p24 for full-review) are set to help the company significantly expand its market share.