In this interview, Russell Chen, Synology’s Country Manager of the SAARC Region shares valuable insights into Synology’s approach to data protection, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions. Highlighting industry trends, market challenges, and Synology’s innovative offerings, Chen provides a comprehensive view of how the company addresses evolving business needs and positions itself as a leader in secure data management.
Q: How has data protection technology evolved over the years, and what trends are shaping the industry in 2025?
Russell Chen: Data protection technology is incorporating more advanced features to address the diverse requirements of various industries. For example, in the BFSI sector, there’s a demand for immutable backups and air-gapped data. These trends are shaping the data protection landscape, and we have prioritized these features in our new product launch.
Q: What technologies and features have you integrated into the new product to cater to the market’s needs? What challenges are you addressing?
Russell Chen: Our new product incorporates advanced features like immutable backup, air gap capabilities, and CMS features. The CMS functionality enables enterprises to manage multiple sites through a single management server, addressing current IT and enterprise challenges.
Q: With increasing threats to data security, what proactive measures should businesses take to safeguard their critical data?
Russell Chen: The traditional 3-2-1 backup rule—three copies of data on two different media, with one copy off-site—is no longer sufficient against today’s ransomware and cyberattacks. The updated rule is 3-2-1-1-0, where the additional “1-0” stands for one immutable or offline backup with zero errors. This means data backups should be verified and ready for restoration whenever needed.
Q: How do AI and automation play a role in data management and cybersecurity at Synology?
Russell Chen: AI is significant for both internal and external use. Internally, we use AI to assist in handling support tickets, reducing our technical support team’s workload by about 80%. Externally, AI supports our productivity tools like email services and office solutions, as well as surveillance through image detection technology.
Q: Cloud computing and cloud storage are in high demand. How does Synology cater to this growing need?
Russell Chen: Many users are adopting a hybrid model with both on-premise and cloud deployments. Synology offers on-premise NAS and our C2 Cloud service, which has data centers in Germany and the US. Our solutions facilitate hybrid sharing between sites and support large data backups.
Q: What regulatory trends or compliance requirements impact data protection strategies today?
Russell Chen: Industries like BFSI in India, similar to GDPR in Europe, require long-term data retention—often two to three decades—while ensuring data security. Our solutions provide secure, cost-effective, long-term data storage, addressing both compliance and budgetary needs.
Q: How does Synology differentiate itself from other data protection and security solutions?
Russell Chen: We provide an integrated hardware and software solution, eliminating the need for third-party software. Additionally, our licensing model is cost-effective, as we charge based on CMS clusters rather than capacity or user count.
Q: Which industries and markets are you targeting for your solutions?
Russell Chen: We see growth in government, manufacturing, and education sectors in India. Specifically, institutions like IITs are adopting our NAS solutions for file sharing. While our primary focus has been SMBs, we are also expanding into enterprise-level businesses.
Q: Could you share Synology’s business growth over recent years?
Russell Chen: Over the past three years, Synology has experienced a 350% global growth, more than tripling our market presence.
Q: How do Synology’s solutions help businesses optimize storage costs while maintaining high security standards?
Russell Chen: Unlike third-party solutions requiring separate hardware and software purchases, Synology NAS comes with integrated in-house software. Our licensing is also cost-effective, as there are no recurring software fees. Additionally, we have a dedicated security team responding to vulnerabilities within 24 hours, compared to the industry standard of 60 days.
Q: What are your business expansion plans and distribution strategies for India?
Russell Chen: We currently operate through distributors and partners, with over 100 partners in India. We aim to expand our strategic partnerships to cover specialized industries, including media and manufacturing.
Q: What innovations can we expect from Synology in the next 2-3 years in security and protection technologies?
Russell Chen: Our ActiveProtect appliance is a significant step forward. We plan to expand support for more backup sources like Azure, AWS, and various databases, along with advanced air gap features.
Q: With the rise of IoT and edge computing, how does Synology address safety concerns in decentralized environments?
Russell Chen: Our ActiveProtect appliance with CMS can manage up to 2.5K servers from a single management point. This approach allows for efficient management of decentralized edge servers from a central location.
Q: Any plans for talent hiring or establishing a subsidiary in India?
Russell Chen: While we don’t have immediate plans for a local entity, considering our growth, we may explore the possibility of a subsidiary or local hires in the next 3-5 years.
