Synology Inc. () is a Taiwanese corporation that specializes in

network-attached storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level (as opposed to block-level storage) computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. The term "NAS" can refer to both the tech ...

(NAS) appliances. Synology's line of NAS is known as the DiskStation for desktop models, FlashStation for

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models, and RackStation for rack-mount models. Synology's products are distributed worldwide and localized in several languages. Synology's headquarters are located in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, with subsidiaries located around the world. In 2018, product review website Wirecutter described Synology as a "longtime leader in the small-business and home NAS arena", albeit still a newcomer in the field of Wi-Fi routers.

Company history

Synology Inc. was founded in January 2000 when Cheen Liao and Philip Wong left

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

to pursue an independent project. Liao was a development manager in the

Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems. The first version was called Exchange Server 4.0, to position it as the successor to the related ...

Group, while Wong was a Sales Director for Microsoft in Taiwan. The two began to write a new operating system called Filer OS based on Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was to be used with Fastora NAS hardware to create a NAS solution. To integrate their NAS software tightly with hardware, Synology released its first complete solution in 2004, the DiskStation DS-101. Since then, Synology has grown to about 650 employees worldwide. Liao and Wong are still with the company, with Liao serving as President of Synology America Corp. and Wong serving Chairman of Synology Inc.

DSM extensibility

Synology's software architecture allows for third-party add-on application integration. Hundreds of third-party applications are available in addition to Synology's own catalog. Command line access via

SSH The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution. SSH applications are based on ...

Telnet Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet contr ...

is available. Access to development tools and APIs are also available on Synology's website. Third-party applications can be written in an interpreted programming language such as

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. ...

or compiled to binary format. Public APIs allow custom applications to integrate into Synology's web-based user interface. Installers using the SPK format can install third-party applications directly on the DSM operating system.

Vulnerabilities

In 2014, a piece of ransomware emerged, dubbed "Synolocker", that targeted Synology devices.

References

External links

* * {{Coord, 25.0792, 121.5427, display=title Computer storage companies Electronics companies of Taiwan Linux-based devices Network-attached storage Server appliance Companies based in Taipei Computer companies established in 2000 Taiwanese companies established in 2000 Taiwanese brands

Company history

DSM extensibility

Vulnerabilities

See also

References

External links