With most of us having grown into a partially-mobile workflow, we’ve heard more and more from creatives interested in Network-Attached Storage (NAS). If you’re not familiar with a NAS, think of it like a RAID array that lives on your network. Unlike a typical file share, it’s self-contained; you don’t need to boot up (or manage!) a whole computer. The enclosure you throw your disks into is also an energy-efficient server, and as an added bonus you don’t have to do any operating system housekeeping.

NAS has proven particularly popular among laptop users, as unchaining themselves from a direct-attached storage array (or DAS) means they can now work anywhere within their WiFi network’s range.

But in a market saturated with products—many of them not particularly good—where do you even begin to look?

Here at Panachroma, we’ve shortened your search: After much deliberation and evaluation, Synology NAS units repeatedly floated to the top of the heap. They’re attractive to look at, easy to use, carry an industry-leading warranty, and perform well. As part of our online store redesign, we’re bringing a veritable buffet of creative-targeted Synology units onboard. If you’re in the market for a NAS, we think you’ll find something to like in Synology—and this is a topic we’ll revisit on the blog in greater detail soon.

Is there anything we don’t like about Synology? Yes. Their product lineup is a mess of extremely similar products spanning multiple generations, and the naming system doesn’t impart a whole lot of useful information. But among complaints in this market, “offers too many products” is a pretty darn minor one. We’ll be working to demystify the product offerings for our customers and any other photographers or other artists reading this blog.