I'm a big advocate of backing up your files, whether it's to a device in your home, the cloud, or both. Most people usually don't think about backup copies until they have a disaster of some sort, and at that time it's usually too late. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Today I'll take a look at the Synology DS414, a four-bay NAS device that promises a ton of storage to backup your files and also supports a wide range of applications so that it can act as a scaled down server in your home. Does it warrant a $480 price tag (without disks) though? I'll put the DS414 through its paces to help you decide if the device is for you.
One thing to note is that Synology does a great job naming their products so that it's easy to tell what you're buying. All of the DiskStation (NAS) devices start with the letters "DS." The first number after that is the number of drives the device supports – in our case, it's 4. The last two numbers are the year the device was released, or 2014 in the case of the DS414. It's a pretty cool way to easily get information about the product you're buying.
This article is brought to you in partnership with Neowin.