As the storage industry undergoes rapid evolution, cloud and hybrid storage solutions are becoming the preferred choice for businesses and individuals alike. Synology, a leader in network-attached storage (NAS), cloud solutions, and cybersecurity, is strengthening its presence in the SAARC region, with a focus on India’s booming digital transformation landscape. In this exclusive interview, Russel Chen, Synology’s Country Manager – SAARC Region, shares insights on the company’s hybrid storage offerings, AI-driven automation, ransomware protection, and upcoming product innovations tailored for enterprises, SMBs, and content creators.
With the storage industry evolving rapidly, cloud and hybrid storage solutions are gaining traction? How is Synology positioning itself in this competitive landscape?
Okay, so Synology not just has an on-premise storage profile but also cloud storage, in the form of Synology C2 Cloud. We have data centres in Germany and the US. So when the customer needs, they can do hybrid mode and even do hybrid sharing between different sites. This allows us to meet the varied requirements of our customers.
AI and automation are becoming integral to data management right now. So I have to ask this question: How does Synology integrate these technologies into its products?
So two things. Internally, we have AI for technical support ticket reply. We have our assistants using AI to reply to a ticket, which has reduced 80% of manpower time. And externally, we adopt AI on our solutions, including surveillance and productivity. For surveillance, we use deep learning and image detection, and for productivity, we use generative AI for tools like email and Office.
Cybersecurity and data protection are big concerns now. So how is Synology ensuring the security of data stored on its NAS systems?
Okay, so take the example of the ActiveProtect Appliance that we’ve just launched. It supports more powerful features to protect against ransomware attacks. These include immutable backup and air gap features. An IT manager can easily manage different sites by CMS as well.
SMBs and content creators are looking for cost-effective storage solutions. How is Synology tackling those?
By using Synology solutions, you can integrate both hardware and software, so the clients don’t need to consider buying different licenses for software and make additional hardware investments. Secondly, the license structure and license pricing are easier to understand. Customers only need to pay by the notes in the cluster. They don’t need to calculate the capacity used or devised quantity in the environment. This allows us to reduce the TCO for every client, including S&B.
India is a high growth market for digital transformation. What is Synology’s current market position in India? And how do you plan to scale it up?
For now, we are very strong in SMB and NAS segments. I believe we are the leaders in these segments in India. For continuing this way, we need to have powerful weapons, which means new products like the ActiveProtect Appliance, which supports advanced features. Over this year and next year, we will also provide all-flash NVME NAS and scale-out NAS. These are the requirements that have been observed among enterprise-level clients.
Distribution and after sales support play a crucial role in brand adoption. How is Synology enhancing its service network across the country?
Two things. For hardware, we rely on our service partners and national distributors. They get hardware units for replacement. And then, some enterprises need NBD services, so we have our partners ready locally to provide this kind of service to fulfil the requirement for our enterprise-level clients. For technical support, for every ticket created by the end-user, our headquarters in Taiwan will provide 24/7 support by replying to all the tickets across the world.
Cloud adoption is growing in India, but on-premise storage remains strong in many sectors. How does Synology plan to bridge the gap with its hybrid storage solutions?
Okay, so similar to my first answer, we provide both on-premise solutions and cloud solutions to fulfill the various needs of our various clients. And this is also the main focus for Indian customers. For example, BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance) – they still cannot upload their user data to the cloud. They still rely on massive volumes of on-premise storage and they need to be secure. This is why we can be of big help to our clients in India.
Can you share any upcoming product launches or innovations that users in India can look forward to?
Okay, so we’ve got bigger solutions than the ActiveProtect Appliance that we’ve just launched. Imaging media houses. They require high IOPS – faster read and write speeds. We will soon launch an all-flash NVME NAS. And for now, we only have scale-up NAS and that too, only for capacity. In the future, we will have scale-out NAS, which will mean an increase to not only the capacity, but also to the performance of the clusters. We think it will be a perfect fit for the enterprise level needs.
