Synology Outlook 2023: DiskStation Manager 7.2 and new hardware announced

Synology says it has sold more than ten million servers and NAS systems worldwide with its own DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system. The Linux-based OS will be updated to version 7.2 at the beginning of 2023, which will introduce a number of new features. Apart from that, the manufacturer is holding out the prospect of a new router, IP cameras and fast scalable storage servers.

DSM 7.2: Full volume encryption, WORM and more

Encryption of shared folders has long been possible, but now DSM 7.2 introduces full volume encryption. This is said to improve storage performance by 48 per cent over the previous folder encryption.

Another innovation is WORM folders (write once, read many). These are folders in which data is protected from manipulation because it cannot be changed or deleted for a predefined period of time. Those who back up their data via Hyper Backup can now also create this as an unchangeable backup. In this way, Synology wants to increase protection against cybercrime and ransomware.

In addition, there are further DSM improvements such as an integration of Windows Hello and Apple Face ID as well as Touch ID for local and online logins (Synology C2 Identity). There's also revamped file sharing, cross-protocol file locking between SMB shares and Synology Drive, SMB multichannel transfer, remote wipe capabilities in Synology Drive and more.
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New hardware: cameras, routers and scalable storage servers

Also at the start of the new year, Synology is expanding its existing video surveillance offering with 500-series IP cameras. These can be managed directly in DSM's Surveillance Station and feature artificial intelligence. They are designed to detect people, vehicles and intrusions. The cameras come in two form factors, the BC500 and TC500, both of which have a 5-megapixel sensor and allow 16:9 video with 2880 × 1620 pixels at 30 frames per second. Thanks to IP67, the cameras are weatherproof, and they also support Power over Ethernet (PoE). It is not yet known how much they will cost.

Synology is launching its second Wi-Fi 6 router, the mesh-enabled WRX560. This is slightly less potent than the RT6600ax already available and only offers dual-band - offering up to a theoretical 600 megabits per second in the 2.4 GHz frequency band and up to 2400 megabits in 5 GHz. It has three gigabit LAN ports, one 2.5-gigabit multiport for LAN or WAN and one USB 3.2 Gen 1. It is priced at $219 and should be available from 2 November 2022.

Not for the beginning of the year, but for 2023, new, horizontally scalable storage servers are planned. These are expected to be significantly faster than Synology's largest offerings to date. This is because they scale performance and capacity almost linearly by adding more devices. The first generation of scale-out clusters supports up to 60 servers and over twelve petabytes of effective storage capacity. This enables over 80 000 simultaneous connections and a sequential write speed of over 60 gigabytes per second.
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