Authored by Jia-Yu Liu, Executive Vice President at Synology and head of the Application Group behind solutions such as ActiveProtect and Synology Drive.
Almost a year ago, we introduced Synology ActiveProtect with a clear vision: simplify data protection through an integrated appliance that unifies management, security, and scalability. That vision was recently validated when ActiveProtect was recognized as a Representative Vendor in the 2025 Gartner® Market Guide for Enterprise Backup Storage Appliances. For us, the recognition underscores what we set out to achieve: helping enterprises move past fragmented tools, unpredictable licensing, and growing ransomware threats.
Today, thousands of ActiveProtect appliances are protecting organizations across industries, from manufacturing to the public sector. Organizations are consolidating protection, cutting costs, and improving recovery confidence. Toyota Vietnam, for example, transitioned from tape-based and non-integrated systems to ActiveProtect and significantly reduced expenses while strengthening resilience. Other enterprises, including government agencies and global manufacturers, have made similar moves. The message from IT teams is consistent: they want fewer moving parts, clearer visibility, and recovery they can trust.
How ActiveProtect delivers
ActiveProtect brings together two things enterprises need most: comprehensive backup protection and unified management.
On the backup side, the platform safeguards everything from physical servers and virtual machines to SaaS and cloud workloads. Global and source-side deduplication minimize storage and network demands, while immutable and air-gapped copies protect against tampering. Automated integrity checks and disaster recovery drills further ensure that recovery points are both clean and dependable.
Equally important is how ActiveProtect is managed. Its scale-out architecture lets organizations expand capacity and performance simply by adding appliances, without downtime or re-architecture. At the same time, centralized visibility and multi-site management give IT teams a single view of resilience across their entire footprint, replacing fragmented tools with one consistent platform.
Why our design matters
From the beginning, ActiveProtect was built as a one-stop solution. Unlike traditional approaches where hardware and software are purchased and configured separately, ActiveProtect arrives as an integrated platform: fast deployment, consistent management, and predictable operation.
Our licensing model reflects the same philosophy. By avoiding per-seat or per-workload fees, organizations can protect all their critical systems—endpoints, SaaS, virtual machines, or cloud instances—without hesitation. This reduces cost pressure and also simplifies purchasing and later expansions. When new workloads are added, there is no need to renegotiate licenses or reassess coverage. Growth is equally straightforward, with transparent scale-out costs as appliances are added to the cluster.
This combination of comprehensive backup protection and simplified management makes ActiveProtect stand apart in a market where complexity and hidden costs remain the norm.
An evolving platform
Almost one year in, ActiveProtect has shown that integrated appliances can reshape how organizations approach backup. Customers tell us they value the simplicity, the license-free model, and the confidence that recovery will be fast and reliable when it matters most.
Recognition in Gartner’s Market Guide was one milestone, but the outcomes our customers are achieving are what matter most. ActiveProtect will continue to evolve so that backup is no longer a burden to manage, but a dependable safeguard that grows with every business.
Learn more about Synology ActiveProtect
Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.