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We liked
The ioSafe is an impressive looking beast, undeniably equipped to provide the claimed levels of disaster-proofing against fire, flood and theft. It's weighty and hard to move about, but that's the point and we certainly felt reassured by the sheer bulk of the product.
Equally impressive is the decision to base it on Synology's market leading NAS technology rather than reinvent the wheel. Synology's DSM software is easy to manage, delivers all the NAS and iSCSI functionality you could need and can be further extended with add-on packages. It also performs well. What more could you ask for?
We disliked
It is very important to understand the limitations of the ioSafe. Only the disks are protected so you can't expect it to carry on working in the midst of a burning building or under 10 feet of water. Moreover, recovery will take some time so backups are still required if businesses are to come through a disaster with minimal disruption.
The price premium also needs to be borne in mind. A Synology DS1513+ configured with 2TB disks, for example, can be had for less than half the price of the ioSafe version. Is the extra disaster proofing really worth that much or can you get by with RAID protection and backup alone?
Final verdict
The benefits of the ioSafe 1513+ will strike a chord with businesses everywhere, offering swift recovery and the ability to carry on as normal rather than having to shut up shop when disaster strikes. That said, the same ends could be achieved, and for a lot less, simply by taking regular backups. However, where business continuity matters most the ioSafe could be worth its (not inconsiderable) weight in gold.
