Nick Jheng, the Regional Manager for the Middle East at Synology, speaks to Small Enterprise about the importance of digital transformation and how Synology is helping businesses achieve their digitalization goals

Tell us about the digital transformation revolution underway the world over. Why is it important?
“Over the next 10 years, we’ll reach a point where nearly everything has become digitized,” said Satya Nadella (current Microsoft CEO) in 2013. It means there won’t be boundaries for digitalization, it’s already a continuous process happening now across industries that influence us not just how we work but also the way we live nowadays.

How does Synology fit into the overall digital transformation strategy companies adopt today?
Data is at the heart of every industry’s transformation, and this is where Synology has an important role to play since our mission is to manage and protect data of the whole world. Synology uniquely enables all business to manage, secure, and protect their data wherever and whenever the access is needed from all common operating systems and devices nowadays.

Why do you think should small businesses and enterprises have a better data backup strategy in place? How is Synology helping companies achieve their digital transformation goals?
What makes Synology unique is that we don’t just provide ordinary NAS product, we make intelligent NAS servers instead. We are always one step ahead of customers from a total cost ownership point of view.

For example, business users used to think NAS products are just for storage. They may also purchase backup software to achieve data protection requirements like multi-versioning, virtual machine backup, or remote site backup.

However, it’s only one time cost when it comes to deploying Synology NAS servers; you purchase NAS hardware as well as all the data protection features you need via DiskStation Manager (or DSM, the operating system for all Synology NAS). And then, you just need to focus on how you would like to configure backup missions based on the data protection requirements. Lastly, customers don’t have to contact the software vendor and hardware manufacturer separately since Synology provides a total solution.

What according to you are the key drivers for long-term digital transformation?
5G and Artificial Intelligence will be the hottest topics for the following 5 to 10 years, or even more. But it doesn’t mean people will be replaced by software or machine. Instead, it will give us more time to focus on innovation and creativity as long as we know how to leverage and utilize new tools or technology.

What do companies need to look for when adopting a more agile data protection approach for their digital business?
Integration, scalability, and total cost ownership, I think are the three most important factors for business users when it comes to data protection for digital assets. With the above three factors in mind, Synology can further provide the answers to the below follow-up questions that many users will be asking:

• Are the solutions compatible with my current environment and devices being used?
• What if I’m running out of storage space and want to expand?
• What will be the cost if I want to expand or even migrate current NAS servers?