Synology Disk Station DS409+ NAS Device
Summary & Conclusion
The DS409+ aced all of our synthetic and real-world file-transfer tests, making it one of the speediest NAS devices we've seen--and noticeably faster than any of the consumer-level (i.e., home user) NAS devices we've tested. While the DS409+'s performance is very impressive, it's not, however, the fastest business level NAS devices to come though our labs. The Thecus N7700 wears the speed crown, but it is also a higher-end, and therefore more expensive NAS device than the DS409+. (The N7700 has a faster processor, more onboard memory, a total of 7 drive bays, and two Gigabit Ethernet connections with failover and load-balance support.)
Just because the DS409+ is geared toward small-businesses, however, doesn't mean that the device can't also find a useful place for itself in the home environment. Its decent media-streaming capabilities, as well the ability to host photo-sharing and Websites make it a good candidate for tech-savvy home users as well. The tech jargon-heavy interface and documentation, however, are likely to keep the DS409+ out of the hands of networking newbies--the learning curve will probably be too high for those who don't already know their way around a NAS device and the commensurate networking technologies (you do know what SSL and TLS connections are, right?).
Businesses and advanced home users alike will appreciate the DS409+'s security features meant to keep local and remote networked connections secure, as well as a variety of server backup options. And those who choose to fill the device with four drives and utilize one of the supported RAID modes that enables data redundancy will appreciate the extra layer of data integrity. (In fact, during our testing, one of the drives in our RAID 5 array unexpectedly stopped functioning, and the DS409+ still kept chugging away with all of our data still accessible. It turns out that it was just a loose cable connection, and not a bad drive.) Business users get the added bonuses of the mail server and IP surveillance camera server as well.
Overall we were very impressed with the DS409+. Our only significant trepidation about the device is its nearly $600 price tag (which is expected to go down to around $550 very soon). That unto itself is not too bad, but it bears repeating that this price is for a device that is not populated with any drives. With our tested configuration of 2TB of storage (via four 500GB drives), the total price for the populated NAS device is closer to $900. If we had chosen to go whole-hog and load it with 8TB (via four 2TB drives), the total cost would have been closer to $1,500. Then again, a quick search for "8TB NAS" shows that you can easily spend a lot more than $1,500 for a populated 8TB NAS device. The bottom line is that if your small business or networked home needs centralized and remotely accessible storage, the DS409+ with its fast data transfer speeds, robust security, and advanced features should more than meet your needs.
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