A €60 NAS can store data. But can it protect your company's data at the moment it really matters? There's a fundamental difference between a storage device and a production-grade backup system — and that difference becomes obvious at exactly the worst moment.
This article isn't an attack on the cheap devices sold on marketplaces such as eMAG, Romania's largest online retailer. There are situations where a budget NAS makes perfect sense. But for business backup, with sensitive data and GDPR obligations, the decision criteria are different from a home NAS for films.
What a business backup NAS has to do — minimum requirements
Before comparing products, it helps to define what a backup system for a small business has to do:
- Automatic, monitored backup: data has to be copied daily, with no manual intervention, and with an alert if something goes wrong
- Ransomware protection: immutable snapshots that can't be encrypted even if the network is compromised
- Offsite backup: an encrypted copy in the cloud or at a secondary site, accessible even if the local NAS is destroyed
- RAID with active notifications: if a drive fails, you need to know within hours, not weeks
- Testable, documentable restores: for GDPR compliance
- Long-term software support: security updates for at least 5 years
A detailed comparison
| Criterion | Synology | No-name NAS (marketplace) | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating system and security updates | ✔ DSM — regular updates, CVEs fixed promptly | ✗ Unknown firmware, rare or no updates | An unpatched NAS is an active attack vector on your network |
| Hyper Backup and native cloud backup | ✔ Hyper Backup — works with Wasabi, B2, S3, Google Drive, native encryption | ✗ Third-party solutions, manual setup, no built-in monitoring | Cloud backup has to be automatic, encrypted and verifiable |
| Immutable anti-ransomware snapshots | ✔ Snapshot Replication with write-once protection | ✗ Missing or limited, with no immutable protection | Without immutable snapshots, ransomware can encrypt the local backup too |
| RAID with active notifications | ✔ RAID with email/SMS alerts on drive failure | Partial — RAID exists, but active monitoring is often missing | RAID without notifications means you can run on a failed drive for weeks |
| Length of software support | ✔ 5–7 years of DSM support for current models | ✗ 1–2 years at best, then abandoned | A NAS running unpatched software in 2028 is a security vulnerability |
| Wasabi / Backblaze B2 compatibility | ✔ Native in Hyper Backup, tested and certified | Uncertain — depends on the firmware and on whether an S3 client is available | Cloud backup has to work without weekly troubleshooting |
| Technical support available | ✔ Synology Support + an active community + extensive documentation | ✗ A foreign-language forum, or nothing | At 3 a.m., when the backup stops working, you need someone who answers |
| Entry-level price (without drives) | €600–900 (DS223/DS223j) | €150–400 | A difference of €300–500 spread over 5 years = €5–8/month |
When a cheap NAS is enough
To be honest: a budget NAS makes perfect sense in a few specific scenarios:
- Media storage at home (films, family photos)
- Personal backup for a single user, with no sensitive data
- A test lab or an isolated development environment
- Secondary storage for rarely accessed archives
All of these have one thing in common: the consequences of a failure are limited and recoverable. There are no GDPR obligations, no client data, no downtime with financial costs.
When you need Synology (or an enterprise equivalent)
For business backup, the equation changes radically if you answer yes to any of these:
- You store personal data of clients or employees (= GDPR applies)
- You hold financial, medical or legal data that has to be available every day
- 3+ days of downtime would significantly affect revenue or clients
- More than 3 employees depend on the stored data
- You face an audit or a contractual requirement for demonstrable backup
Synology isn't the only serious manufacturer — QNAP and Asustor make quality products too. But Synology has the most consistent track record in SMB, the most mature software ecosystem (DSM, Hyper Backup, Active Backup for Business) and the longest support commitment in its class.
The price difference compared with a cheap NAS — roughly €300–500 — pays for itself in the first year of operation: no hours of troubleshooting, no manual configuration, no surprises when you need a restore.
For details on which Synology configuration fits your business, see our services page or the available packages.
Read also
We implement a correctly configured Synology for your business
Not just hardware — a complete system: RAID, encrypted cloud backup, immutable snapshots, monitoring and GDPR documentation included.