Synology today announced the release of BeeDrive, a compact data hub that backs up personal files and photos from your computer, phone, and tablet simultaneously. In less than three minutes of setup, any PC user can start protecting their files with BeeDrive at fast local transfer speeds, while ensuring complete data privacy and ownership.

"Every one of us is generating an unprecedented amount of data on various personal devices today. Better cameras and new photo or video formats, in particular, are eating up our phone or cloud storage space faster than ever," said David Hu, product manager at Synology Inc. 

"Internet upload speeds never caught up with the explosive growth in personal data, making it increasingly slower and more costly to store all our files in the cloud, especially if we just want to back up or archive old files elsewhere or exchange files between our personal devices," Hu said. "This is why we want to offer a local, private alternative."

"With BeeDrive, we hope to bring Synology's expertise in backup technologies to a larger group of users — many of whom are perfectly computer-literate, but have neither the time or the networking knowledge to host a server that runs 24/7 just for backup," Hu added. "BeeDrive offers a no-hassle option even for the families and friends of current Synology users."

Local PC & mobile backup reduce backup time and long-term costs

Once plugged into a PC, users can select which folders they want to protect. BeeDrive automatically backs up all changes in those folders in real time, providing a better recovery point objective (RPO) than scheduled hourly backups. Backup files are stored on BeeDrive in the same format as they are on PC. In case of a computer failure, users can simply connect BeeDrive to another computer and access their files right away, without having to install any software and go through a time-consuming recovery process. 

BeeDrive also backs up photos and videos from iOS and Android devices over Wi-Fi, so phones and tablets are protected at the same time. Just keep your BeeDrive-connected PC and mobile devices in the same network and scan a QR code, and see BeeDrive start backing up to free up space on your phone. 

Overcoming the bandwidth limits imposed by internet or cloud service providers, BeeDrive can be 11 times faster than backing up large files to the cloud from a PC, and six times faster than doing so from mobile devices.¹

BeeDrop and two-way sync boost productivity when exchanging files between devices

For field staff or other professionals who take a lot of photos on their phone and need to use them on a PC when back at the office, the BeeDrop feature allows them to wirelessly send mobile-generated content from iOS and Android devices to BeeDrive. The files become immediately accessible on PC — no more uploading to and downloading from the cloud. 

When switching between work and home computers, BeeDrive can help sync files on each computer as soon as it is plugged in, making sure that all files are always up-to-date on the computer you are working on while keeping a second copy on BeeDrive. 

"Collecting files generated from all our personal devices is just the first step," said Hu. "In the future, we hope to leverage the abundant computing resources of a computer to help users extract more value from the data itself, such as through auto-categorization. It is always our goal to bring modern technologies to Synology users without sacrificing their data privacy and ownership."

Availability

BeeDrive is available in 1TB and 2TB capacity from mid-June for Windows, iOS, and Android through Synology partners and resellers worldwide. macOS support is planned. For more details, visit https://bee.synology.com.