Synology's latest headline features are only available to people using solely Synology's own hard drives.
A year ago, they tried to make it so that you couldn't create a new RAID volume unless it used only first-person drives.[0] Then they walked that back to allow you to use normal Seagate and WD, etc., drvies.[1] It seems they've reverted locking new features to their own hardware.
After that first move, I swore I was done buying Synology hardware. After they relaxed, I was willing to consider that they'd learned from customer feedback and abandoned this scheme. Now? This is the future they're racing toward and I want no part of it.
I've been using a Synology for several years now and I'm nervous about continuing with the platform with these moves they've been making. Day-to-day, I don't really have to think about it and it serves my needs well, but I know one day something is going to happen that requires me to think about it, and it feels like I'm waiting around to fall into a trap.
I'm not sure which direction to go, as I don't want my NAS to turn into a sys admin hobby.
If you figure that out, please let me know. I've been using their gear since my first DS412+ way back when. For the most part, it's been rock solid and works as advertised. Without these shenanigans I'd have little desire to switch to anything else.
But now? Since their first attempt to lock users into buying their insane first-party drives[0] I've started migrating all my workload off the NAS and onto separate servers. It's very close to being just "dumb storage" now. I refuse to use any of their cool proprietary products because I want to avoid this lock-in.
Synology's latest headline features are only available to people using solely Synology's own hard drives.
A year ago, they tried to make it so that you couldn't create a new RAID volume unless it used only first-person drives.[0] Then they walked that back to allow you to use normal Seagate and WD, etc., drvies.[1] It seems they've reverted locking new features to their own hardware.
After that first move, I swore I was done buying Synology hardware. After they relaxed, I was willing to consider that they'd learned from customer feedback and abandoned this scheme. Now? This is the future they're racing toward and I want no part of it.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43734706
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45513485
I've been using a Synology for several years now and I'm nervous about continuing with the platform with these moves they've been making. Day-to-day, I don't really have to think about it and it serves my needs well, but I know one day something is going to happen that requires me to think about it, and it feels like I'm waiting around to fall into a trap.
I'm not sure which direction to go, as I don't want my NAS to turn into a sys admin hobby.
If you figure that out, please let me know. I've been using their gear since my first DS412+ way back when. For the most part, it's been rock solid and works as advertised. Without these shenanigans I'd have little desire to switch to anything else.
But now? Since their first attempt to lock users into buying their insane first-party drives[0] I've started migrating all my workload off the NAS and onto separate servers. It's very close to being just "dumb storage" now. I refuse to use any of their cool proprietary products because I want to avoid this lock-in.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Synology-HAT5320-Enterprise-Internal-... is $1300 (but only 12 in stock), vs a Seagate https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-IronWolf-Enterprise-Internal-... for $860. And what happens when you have to replace a drive? I can drive over to Central Computers right now and have a new WD installed an hour later. I have no idea where I'd source a Synology drive on short notice in an emergency.