Similarly, Synology has its own answer to Slack and Google Hangouts in Synology Chat, a messaging system that runs through a browser UI or a desktop client from the more powerful Synology NAS devices. As the suite and the data are both hosted locally, you know that you have full control. It’s very similar to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, although it lacks some of the more recent interface enhancements and features, and it will easily handle a smallish team from a single NAS. Online office suites have their advantages, but what if you don’t want the ongoing costs or fear getting locked into Google or Microsoft’s ecosystem? Do you worry about productivity should the service or your internet connection go down? Synology has its own collaborative office suite – Synology Office – which runs not from the cloud but from your NAS. You’ll even find applications covering specific sectors or industries, such as Moodle in the education sector. For instance, if you’re looking for a CRM, both SugarCRM and Vtiger are available on a range of different NAS appliances from different manufacturers, while OrangeHRM will have you covered for HRM. Your business may not have the budget to run expensive, server-based enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), human resource management (HRM) or accountancy packages, but open-source alternatives are available, and many of these will serve a small office happily from a NAS. What’s more, you can control it from the NAS’s browser-based UI or from a remote client on your Android tablet or phone. Install a good BitTorrent client, like Transmission, and you can set up the connection and leave the NAS to manage downloads and uploads – and you’ve even got the file you wanted somewhere accessible and central when it’s done. Why tie up a PC or laptop downloading torrents when you can get your NAS doing it, quietly, in the background. You’re in control of the file and streaming quality, and you can guarantee that there are no adverts or sudden price hikes.

Remember all of those MP3 and AAC files you’ve got lurking on different computers? Consolidate them all on your NAS and you can have your own music or iTunes server accessible across the network, which will play nicely both with smartphone media player apps and Sonos multiroom systems.

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