Synology: DiskStation DS712+ NAS for SMBs

Synology Inc. announced the successor to the DS710+ DiskStation, the DS712+.

The new NAS server is Synology’s latest high-performance, scalable storage solution, an PC file server replacement for business users. Coupled with the DX510 expansion module, it can scale out to seven drives (up to 21TB) on the fly.

"The DS712+ is simply Synology’s most powerful business storage solution at this price point," said Jason Bonoan, Product Marketing Manager at Synology America Corp. "At just under $500, this presents a great value proposition. Cost-conscious users can begin with only the amount of storage they need and scale up as their usage grows."

The DS712+ offers multiple redundancy options to maximize uptime. The two-bay server supports RAID-1 or Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) for a single disk’s redundancy. SHR allows users to scale their storage quickly when adding disks in the DX510. Dual NICs allow for affordable MPIO support, for virtualization support.

Like other Synology models, the DS712+ runs the DiskStation Manager (DSM) software. DSM 3.2 supports Mac and Time Machine for OS X Lion. The DiskStation includes support for joining LDAP domains, even to act as a lightweight LDAP server.

The new Package Manager allows users to extend the functionality by adding only such packages as they need. Users can now browse, install, and run add-ons from within the DSM, including packages, such as the VPN server or Syslog Server, even 3rd party packages such as the OpenERP business package.

Other features include:

• Support for ADS domains up to 100,000 users and groups
• ACL support for granular file-level permissions (using local or ADS users and groups)
• iSCSI support with MPIO, MC/S, and SPC-3
• Virtualization support (supports VMware, Citrix Xen, and Hyper-V)