Synology - deserving of its own forum section?

[dba]

I think so. There is, of course, the "official" Synology forum, but the STH folks are perhaps a bit more advanced than the average Synology user, so a forum here might have a higher signal to noise ratio.

 

[TangoWhiskey9]

Did you write this before or after the main site article today?

 

[nitrobass24]

I would say that creating a separate forum would a bit pre-mature considering that there are only 25 threads even referencing synology, and less than 5 where the topic is about Synology.

 

[Jeggs101]

Especially seeing how they are developing the platform, I'm totally into Synology. Don't have one yet.

I do think that vendor specific may be hard. What about Synology and adding Drobo QNAP Thecus NetGear Buffalo in there?

Can you move threads after the fact? Maybe as topics happen on Synology, can add a dedicated forum for them.

 

[dba]

Before - in fact I had no idea that Patrick had plans to publish another Synology article!

Did you write this before or after the main site article today?

 

[dba]

I'd also be good with a general NAS forum covering all brands. Right now we have five storage platform areas in the forums, all of which are pretty specific.

Especially seeing how they are developing the platform, I'm totally into Synology. Don't have one yet.

I do think that vendor specific may be hard. What about Synology and adding Drobo QNAP Thecus NetGear Buffalo in there?

Can you move threads after the fact? Maybe as topics happen on Synology, can add a dedicated forum for them.

 

[Patrick]

I do like this idea. Some may have noticed that I did change DIY storage builds to DIY server builds recently as part of updating.

Jeggs101 - I can move threads so that is possible.

On the general NAS idea, I like that. The goal of the forums was to be agnostic to platform/ provider. So you could get napp-it v. FreeNAS advice in one place. Still not there just yet.

Does anyone have a name suggestion for that forum?

 

[dba]

Perhaps something like:

Commercial NAS Platforms
NetGear, QNap, Synology, Buffalo, and others

The list of brands above was done in decreasing order of units shipped last year, as opposed to alphabetically.

I do like this idea. Some may have noticed that I did change DIY storage builds to DIY server builds recently as part of updating.

Jeggs101 - I can move threads so that is possible.

On the general NAS idea, I like that. The goal of the forums was to be agnostic to platform/ provider. So you could get napp-it v. FreeNAS advice in one place. Still not there just yet.

Does anyone have a name suggestion for that forum?

 

[MiniKnight]

I like this, but then shouldn't EMC, NetApp and HP be the top in commercial NAS systems?

 

[dba]

EMC plus NetApp have a combined 78% share of the NAS market if you measure revenue, with IBM coming in third at 5% and HP with 1.7%. In terms of units shipped, the landscape looks very different. The 2011 Gartner rankings look like this:

1/ Netgear 108,876
2/ Qnap 97,554
3/ Synology 94,538
4/ Buffalo 90,955
5/ EMC 81,032
6/ NetApp 58,687
7/ HP 12,402

Synology, by the way, was the fastest growing NAS vendor, shipping almost 79% more units in 2011 than 2010.

I'd argue that volume vendors above will be more popular topics of conversation on STH than say EMC.

I like this, but then shouldn't EMC, NetApp and HP be the top in commercial NAS systems?

 

[Biren78]

Where is Drobo in that? Aren't they low dollar and high volume like the top 4 there?

Trying to find the source doc now. Is it a magic quad?

 

[dba]

The URL for the Gartner source data is below. Drobo is not on the list.

Top 2011 NAS Vendors: EMC in Sales, Netgear in Units

Where is Drobo in that? Aren't they low dollar and high volume like the top 4 there?

Trying to find the source doc now. Is it a magic quad?

 

[PigLover]

Ah come on guys. Who cares what order you put the names in (or why). "Market share $$$" - bah. "Market share units" - whatever. If you had to choose something the one that is probably more interesting to readers here is "market share - used, off lease and/or B-stock available on eBay" .

My informal survey says that one is a toss-up between HP/Lefthand and Rackable, though in fairness those usually don't come with the proper software to directly use them as intended.

Intended in good fun. The idea of a topic dedicated to "Commercial NAS Systems" is outstanding. +1. Its just a bit silly to argue over ordering of vendors in the subtitle.

 

[Jeggs101]

Isn't Rackable now SGI?

I would also +1 Commercial NAS Systems

 

[dba]

Hi Patrick, do we get a new forum section for Commercial NAS systems?

Isn't Rackable now SGI?

I would also +1 Commercial NAS Systems

 

[Patrick]

Yes. Will be adding soon!

Edit: Commercial NAS Systems