computer science

Synology

Synology is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Synology rather than just read about it. In short: Synology Inc. (Chinese: 群暉科技; pinyin: Qúnhuī Kējì) is a Taiwanese corporation that specializes in network-attached storage (NAS) appliances.

Key takeaways

Synology belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Synology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Synology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Synology Inc. (Chinese: 群暉科技; pinyin: Qúnhuī Kējì) is a Taiwanese corporation that specializes in network-attached storage (NAS) appliances. Synology's line of NAS is known as the DiskStation for desktop models, FlashStation for all-flash 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, Taiwan, 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. For years, Synology NAS units supported third-party hard drives, giving users the freedom to choose from various brands and capacities. That changed in 2025, when Synology started locking its NAS devices to only accept Synology-branded hard drives, effectively ending their long-standing tradition of open drive compatibility. With the release of DSM 7.3 in October 2025, Synology reversed its lock on only allowing NAS devices manufactured in 2025 (i.e. - DS425, DS225, etc) to use Synology-branded hard drives (HDD) and once again third party hard drives can be used, but M.2 drives are still locked to Synology's own brand.

Company history

Synology Inc. was founded in 2000 after Cheen Liao and Philip Wong left Microsoft to pursue an independent project. Liao was a development manager in the Microsoft Exchange Server Group, while Wong was a Sales Director for Microsoft in Taiwan. Liao had joined Microsoft in 1989 and worked at the Seattle campus. At Microsoft, Wong is credited with contacting Cher Wang to propose licensing Windows CE to First International Computer; Wang would later found HTC. However, Wong felt that Taiwanese OEMs were doing most of the work for foreign brands, and left Microsoft; when Liao was visiting his mother in Taiwan, Wong convinced him to found Synology, naming the company by taking one character from each of their names. Liao brought the Microsoft software development process to Taiwan, requiring that all code be reviewed by two other software engineers, and the code would not pass until the reviewing engineers endorsed the logic. At Synology, Liao and Wong wrote 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. Three years after founding the company, they shifted from exclusively licensed software to adding hardware design and production, since the hardware partners who had been licensing the software had inconsistent quality control; diagnosing failures required Synology's active participation, and as a new company, Synology had difficulty in gaining trust and recognition. To vertically integrate their NAS software tightly with hardware, Synology released its first complete solution in 2004, the DiskStation DS-101. Initially, Synology targeted the power user and small to medium-sized business markets, as the high-end market for NAS solutions was dominated by EMC Corporation and NetApp. To expand its market share in the United States, Liao decided to send gift baskets to popular review outlets, containing custom-printed chocolates with the Synology name.

In 2007, Wong implemented a "rotating CEO system", in which a few senior employees served terms as the CEO; Wong returned as CEO in 2019. Liao and Wong are still with the company, with Liao serving as President of Synology America Corp. and Wong serving Chairman of Synology Inc. By 2014, revenue exceeded NT$10 billion. Synology has grown from approximately 40 employees, as of 2008, to 600 employees in its Taiwan offices in 2017, of which 200 were software development engineers. Synology expanded beyond its roots in peripheral storage market by introducing a cloud service in 2017, initially using three data centers in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2018, Wong stated that Synology's profits were "in the same neighborhood as ASUS", which were approximately NT$4.2 billion that year. The company consolidated its Taiwan offices and headquarters in 2019, moving from offices on Chang'an West Road and Chengde Road in Datong District, Taipei, near the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, and Taipei Main Station, to the Far Eastern Telecom Park (Tpark) in Banqiao District.

Products Synology uses an alphanumeric naming convention; the product name is two alphabetical characters followed by a three- or four-digit number, with an optional suffix attached. The alphabetical characters give the product category; for storage products, the first (hundreds place) digit is the number of internal drive bays, and the last two digits (tens and ones) is the year the product is intended to be sold. The suffix can be a character, such as "+" to indicate increased performance over the suffix-free equivalent model, or a letter, such as "j", which is attached to entry-level products. For example, the DS211+ is a DiskStation (NAS) with two drive bays, released in 2011, with enhanced performance. After Synology released NAS expansion chassis (DX and RXnnn), this scheme was modified slightly to incorporate a four-digit number in the product name; the first digit(s) (hundreds and thousands, if present) indicate the total number of drives supported. For example, the DS723+ has two internal drive bays, but it can be connected to the DX517 five-drive expansion chassis, supporting a total of seven drives.

Storage

Consumer- and small/home business-oriented NAS products by Synology are sold under the DS (DiskStation) line, while larger businesses may choose the RS (RackStation) line of rack-mounted units; the corresponding expansion chassis include the DX (Disk eXpander) and RX (Rack eXpander), introduced in 2009. Synology also marketed a CS (CubeStation) line of four-bay storage products, with the approximate shape of a cube, but later folded these into the DS line. In a review for SmallNetBuilder, Jim Buzbee was "impressed with the maturity of the DS-101's software and documentation" but felt the main negatives were "high cost and limited availability". In addition, Synology sells FS/FX (FlashStation), HD (High Density), SA (Scalable Architecture), and UC (Uptime Critical) networked storage products for larger businesses, housed in rack-mountable units.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Synology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Synology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Synology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Synology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Synology

In research: Synology appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Synology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Synology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Taipei, Computer companies established in 2000, Computer companies of Taiwan, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Synology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Synology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Synology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Synology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Synology in simple terms?

Synology Inc. (Chinese: 群暉科技; pinyin: Qúnhuī Kējì) is a Taiwanese corporation that specializes in network-attached storage (NAS) appliances.

Why does Synology matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Synology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Synology.