Synology DS2015xs Review: An ARM-based 10G NAS

Synology is one of the most popular COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) NAS vendors in the SMB / SOHO market segment. The NAS models introduced by them in 2014 were mostly based on Intel Rangeley (the Atom-based SoCs targeting the storage and communication market). However, in December, they sprang a surprise by launching the DS2015xs, an ARM-based model with dual 10GbE ports. We were intrigued by the combination of a quad-core Cortex-A15 and 10GbE I/O and promptly requested Synology for a review sample. Do ARM SoCs have the necessary performance to warrant a place in the high-performance xs series? More importantly, is the Annapurna Labs AL514 SoC capable of keeping the 10G ports saturated during operation? Read on to for our review of the Synology DS2015xs to find out.