So how did we improve it? Usability wise the interface has been completely redesigned with emphasis on giving users easier access to different features.

This version also focuses on making the VPN feature easier to use. The VPN PPTP service and user configuration has been integrated into the web interface. For further user convenience MRU/MTU can be specified for PPTP connections from the CLI interface.

As spam volumes are continuously increasing and with them employee productivity deceasing, we’ve upgraded our email antispam with better IP reputation settings.

The license section has also been reworked for easier use and navigation with the Machine ID now visible at the top of the page.

Further improvement to the UTM platform include the following fixes:

• HTTP proxy & email logs pages are properly generated
• Navigation works on email reports page

We would also like to thank our users for passionately suggesting improvements and have added many fixes and improvements to version 2.7. Our engineers have fiddled with some of the features to make them easier and less time-consuming to use.

Here’s what’s new:

When replicating data the total size and estimated time of arrival is displayed in a progress transfer bar.

Backup replications can now be cancelled during transfer.

Local destinations such as local data pools on external drives can be chosen for backup replication.

The export of disk pools to other appliances has been enabled.

Lastly, disk pools can now be imported form removable disks.

As we’ve already mentioned, this release include many fixed and improvements:

Fixed:

• Incremental backup replication can be continued after it was disabled or its destination removed.
• Easier and faster editing for backup schedule options.
• Proper replication cancellation after the appliance is restarted.
• For easier use admins will are interacted to first decrease reservation and then quota when trying to do both at the same time.
• Fixed the removal of iSCSI targets from groups.
• Passwords can now contain unicode and special characters.
• The keyboard layout (language) can now be selected during installation.
• Active Directory user mappings are also deleted when restoring the firmware.
• After updates, old notifications are no longer received.
• Statistics for new or imported disk pools are immediately available

Improved:

• Interface speed, response-times and user interaction.

You can experience the ease of use and powerful features of Syneto Storage for yourself. We’re offering a trial of the operating system free of charge. It’s fully functional and can manage up to 1TB of data. Learn more and download by clicking the button below.

Without further a due, here are some of the improvements we’ve made:

A new “Backup schedules” section that replaces the older “Backups” page. This brings all the settings for backing-up and replicating your data, on and off-site, into a single friendly section.

Users now have the possibility to manually replicate Backups directly from the interface.

We have also redesigned the management system for replication keys in order to make them easier to use and configure. User can now access them from the “Settings” menu, under “Replication Keys”.

Lastly, the new 2.6 release adds hardware support for a bunch of Ethernet cards. It also improves the HTTP proxy settings by allowing the user to configure a system-wide proxy for something other than software updates. More importanly, Syneto engineers have improved the sychronous write performance for separate read cache disks.

This version also contains a number of important fixes for a few minor issues:

• A problem with MacOS X Lion (10.7) that denied users access to stored data using Finder has been fixed
• An issue where connections to CIFS service using a DNS alias terminated other ongoing sessions has been mended
• A small quirk with the Active Directory integration the caused domain joining to fail has also been addressed.

If you kept on reading this far you should know that Syneto Storage offers cost-effective and user-friendly solutions for everything from Data Backup, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and High Data Availability to Personal Clouds and Cloud Services. Give it a try for free by accessing the download link in the button below.

After a faulty disk is replaces, the degraded disk pool can be cleared directly form the web interface.

The number of of backups kept on remote machine is shown on the backups page.

The NTP server is synchronized and configured with the Active Directory domain controller before joining Active Directory.

Sharing a CIFS folder with everybody is now easier and faster thanks to the addition of a “Public access” option.

Information about when the last backup has been replicated successfully has been added.

A bunch of bug fixes that adress some existing quirks within the OS have also received theu due attention. Here’s a list of what’s been fixed:

• Web interface correctly shows system date and time
• Support single port QLogic FC adapters
• Prevent web interface timeout when logging while a lot of hardware faults are present
• Prevent a condition when administrator cannot permanently hide old hardware fault notifications
• Allow the creation of an aggregate interface using more than 4 ethernet interfaces
• Prevent an error that occurs when admin tries to create a folder with the same name as an existing virtual disk
• Limit local user group names to 19 characters to prevent errors when configuring an ACL for the group
• Only empty user groups can be deleted

You can experience the flexibility and agility that Syneto Storage brings to your datacenter by trying it out. You can download it free of charge for small datacenter environments or evaluation purposes. The available version is a fully functioning sample of the software that manages up to 1TB of disk space.

Fixes:

• DNS cache refreshes correctly when nameservers change
• IP aliases with a /32 netmask are now accepted
• Correctly align elements in tables (NAT, filters)
• Prevent a browser caching issue requiring admin. to clear the cache after an upgrade
• Optimize memory usage when antivirus scanning is not enabled
• Downloading and installing updates while under heavy load no longer blocks UTM
• Dashboard graphics now show properly in Internet Explorer
• Attempting to set an empty password for ssh access is no longer permitted
• Web category statistics no longer stop updating in certain conditions
• Update antivirus more reliably
• Editing an alias IP address will now properly rename the network and interface definition
• Enabling HTTP proxy on a bridge interface now works properly
• Default system update URL is now set correctly

More information and details on the Unified Threat Management product page.