Easy Collaboration with Synology’s DSM 6.2 Features

Introduction

Synology released the latest version of their NAS operating system, Disk Station Manager, at the end of May. Today, I’m taking a closer look at the file and document collaboration features.

DSM 6.2 Advances

There aren’t a lot of new things in DSM 6.2, it’s more a “Let’s do what we do, let’s just do it a lot better” kind of thing. Synology’s aim is to provide better IT management flexibility and usability in every aspect.

The new Advanced LUN, iSCSI Manager, and Storage Manager take management efficiency to a whole new level. At the same time, security update with no service downtime in SHA and abnormal DSM login detection bring you a more powerful but secure DSM.

The Package Center also got an overhaul, and that’s where we’ll find the things we take a closer look at today: Drive, Office, Chat, and Calendar.

Synology Drive

Synology Drive is a powerful application which allows you to access and store your data anytime, anywhere. But it is more than just a centralised cloud storage. Drive also supports multiple historical version and flexible sharing.

Synology Office

The office application is a collaboration-oriented tool for creating documents, spreadsheets, and slides in the Drive portal. The data can be edited with various built-in tools while you can exchange ideas with your colleagues at the same time. It features interactive comments and there’s also the Chat plugin available.

It’s even possible to encrypt files with password for that extra bit of security on top of everything else.

Synology Chat

The chat application is a safe web-based place for you to converse about anything you want in real time. It makes collaborating a lot easier without you having to rely on 3rd party solutions.

Synology Calendar

The calendar app explains itself, more or less. It’s a web-based calendar application for organising your daily events. There’s a personal calendar for every user and they can be shared with a group too. CalDAV is also supported which makes it compatible with mobile devices.

Synology MailPlus

There’s also Synology MailPlus is a powerful webmail service with rich features. You can send and receive mail to and from any mail servers while you keep all your emails in one convenient and secure place. It includes everything you could want, from text formatting to a powerful smart search function and labels. You can also save any email to Note Station which is a nice bonus.

Summary and Device Usage

Before we take a closer look at all the functions, let us summarise the above. In general, it is nothing that which we haven’t seen before. But, and that’s a big but, everything runs and stays on your NAS. It stays on the premises, under your control, and away from prying eyes.

All of it is web-based which allows for an easy access from almost any device. There is no need to install any applications on your PC or mobile systems because they already have it. All you need is a browser.

I’m using the Synology DS1618+ for this article, fully loaded with WD RED 6TB drives. While it isn’t important as such, it’s still worth mentioning. You can check out the full reviews of the Synology DS1618+ NAS and WD RED drives for more details on them.