DroboPro announced

[Palladium]

It's official! Data Robotics introduces DroboPro, the first business class storage device that manages itself! DroboPro delivers both enterprise-level data safety and unprecedented expandability, featuring single and dual disk redundancy combined with instant capacity expansion!

Leveraging the revolutionary BeyondRAID™ virtualized storage platform, and the peace of mind that comes with every Drobo product, DroboPro offers unparalleled features including:

* Instant capacity expansion across up to eight (8) hard drives
* Protection from one or two hard drive failures
* Create up to 16x16TB Smart Volumes™ with a click of a button
* iSCSI (Gigabit Ethernet), FireWire 800 and USB 2.0
* Rack mount ready, desktop quiet

Join us for a webinar on April 9th at 9am PDT or 2pm PDT to learn more about the all-new DroboPro...

Introducing DroboPro. http://www.drobo.com/images/datasheet-icon.gif (http://www.drobo.com/pdf/drobopro_datasheet.pdf)
http://www.drobo.com/images/360-view-icon.gif (http://www.drobo.com/products/360/drobopro/index.php) http://www.drobo.com/images/drobopro-front.gif Introducing DroboPro, the first business class storage array that manages itself. Engineered to be both simple and scalable, the revolutionary BeyondRAID™ technology incorporated into DroboPro frees businesses of making the difficult and confining choices commonly associated with storage management. Why trade simplicity for safety, or stability for expandability? DroboPro delivers both enterprise-level data safety and unprecedented expandability, featuring single and dual disk redundancy combined with instant capacity expansion. Once you experience DroboPro, you just might forget the differences between all eleven traditional RAID levels. If you do, don’t panic. You’re experiencing the peace of mind that comes with every Drobo® product.


http://www.drobo.com/products/drobopro/

[smcclelland]

Looks great, aside from the fact that it's priced around $1300 :) They're cool devices but just too overpriced for what you get in my opinion, I picked up my 4-bay RAID enclosure (0, 1, 5, 10) for $269 with an eSata connection to boot which was much better than the Drobo's.

[shaggymatt]

Looks great, aside from the fact that it's priced around $1300 :) They're cool devices but just too overpriced for what you get in my opinion, I picked up my 4-bay RAID enclosure (0, 1, 5, 10) for $269 with an eSata connection to boot which was much better than the Drobo's.

Totally agree with you there. It is RAID redundancy for the people that aren't as tech savy. My buddy is in love with them. The one thing I will give them that most of the other enclosures don't offer is that if you add a smaller drive, the capacity isn't limited by the smallest drive.

What enclosure did you get? I'm looking into this myself, but am leaning towards the 1TB Firewire 800 My Studio Book (about $250) that also has RAID 1, and then using Amazon S3 for off site.

[Damian75]

While there are cheaper solutions out there non that are as hassle free and flexible as someone who has run many a large raid array the ability to upgrade a single drive in the array to increase storage with full data security and without loosing access to your data during a rebuild is a huge benefit I have been playing around with these since the first one and almost grabbed one when that added FW800 and they do work as advertised but am glad I waited now that it has much more capacity and supports iSCSI I am going to be putting this on my short list of things to buy.

[Damian75]

Totally agree with you there. It is RAID redundancy for the people that aren't as tech savy. My buddy is in love with them. The one thing I will give them that most of the other enclosures don't offer is that if you add a smaller drive, the capacity isn't limited by the smallest drive.

What enclosure did you get? I'm looking into this myself, but am leaning towards the 1TB Firewire 800 My Studio Book (about $250) that also has RAID 1, and then using Amazon S3 for off site.

I don't think that these are just raid for non tech savvy people most everyone I have talked to who has one many are personal friends are very tech savvy and are more than capable of building there own raid arrays but this does not use standard raid it is there own design and the ability to mix and match drive sizes with full data protection and then upgrade those drives as you see fit as lager drive become more cost effective is huge. Also if you build say a 4tb raid and it get close to full you pretty much have to add another array or find a temporary home for all your data as you replace all the drives and build the new set. Or at the very least have to deal with long down times while the array rebuilds when you add drives these are all issues you don't have with this solution.

[shaggymatt]

...this does not use standard raid it is there own design and the ability to mix and match drive sizes with full data protection and then upgrade those drives as you see fit as lager drive become more cost effective is huge...

Exactly why I gave Drobo that one point in my original post. But at the price point, I don't see the benefit.

Personally, I'd be just as happy growing my library on numerous external drives, since they primarily become for archival purposes. Label the drives then by year, and organize on drive by customer. Once I've completed a job and posted to Zenfolio for ordering, that job is pretty much complete unless someone comes back down the road for something. I don't have a need to access those files on a whim.

I paid $250 for a 1TB Western Digital drive a year ago. So now a 2TB (1TB in RAID 1 config) is $250. The cheapest Drobo is $450'ish before you put in ~$100 per 1TB drive. I can buy a couple of the Western Digital drives, and still have money left over for a true off site storage solution.

[Damian75]

I guess I am too used to having to do enterprise/government level data archiving and have had very bad luck with external HD not so much with the drives themselves but with the cheap crappy controller cards they use in the last year I think I have had to pull drives out of about 50 external HD due to controller card failures from all the major makes. I have about 15 friends that currently use the drobo's all with IT backgrounds and all without a single issue other than the occasional drive failure which is easily swapped out with zero down time. I currently use two servers for backup both running hardware raid 0+1 one local and one off site but am running out of space so I may pick one of these up. I am not saying that everyone should abandon normal raid for a drobo but I don't think it shouldn't be dismissed as raid for dummies either there is alot of cool tech being used to create these things and I would not be surprised to see other mass storage makers try to come out with there own versions.

[smcclelland]

Totally agree with you there. It is RAID redundancy for the people that aren't as tech savy. My buddy is in love with them. The one thing I will give them that most of the other enclosures don't offer is that if you add a smaller drive, the capacity isn't limited by the smallest drive.

What enclosure did you get? I'm looking into this myself, but am leaning towards the 1TB Firewire 800 My Studio Book (about $250) that also has RAID 1, and then using Amazon S3 for off site.

I picked up a Mediasonic enclosure (http://ncix.com/products/?sku=36224&vpn=HFR2-S3B&manufacture=Mediasonic) based on some reviews I read of it and the fact that it has a very nice server based integrated RAID controller not some cheap software mod or flimsy device. Mine cost me $229 on sale a month or so ago and it's been great, super easy to switch between RAID modes if you need to, of course it rebuilds the array if you change from RAID5 to RAID10 but it's just a simple switch config on the front menu and it goes to work. The eSata was the selling point for me as FW800 and USB2.0 just don't come close to the speed of eSata so I wired it up with 4x1TB WD drives in RAID10 which gives me a two drive redundancy. If I ever need more space I would definitely pick another one of these up for the price and performance, it's pretty quiet too and has fan adjustment on the front control panel.

[OdiN1701]

Overpriced, and they don't have eSATA so I'll stick with my external eSATA RAID setup.

[imahawki]

I don't understand why someone would want Firewire instead of eSATA for a local drive, and networkability is an extra $200.

[MSIGuy]

Oh no, now we have to listen to Scott Bourne endlessly whore for this product now... :rolleyes:

[shaggymatt]

I picked up a Mediasonic enclosure (http://ncix.com/products/?sku=36224&vpn=HFR2-S3B&manufacture=Mediasonic) based on some reviews I read of it and the fact that it has a very nice server based integrated RAID controller not some cheap software mod or flimsy device.

Thanks, I will look into it! :)

[Soda Ant]

Oh no, now we have to listen to Scott Bourne endlessly whore for this product now... :rolleyes:
Does that guy get a commission on every unit sold, or what?

[LostShootingStar]

Yeah, this is a bit more than just standard RAID setup. I actually use a RAID array on a linux box in my house for storage. It works fine for me because im a nerd like that, but for others, this product is a great solution. http://www.entertainment-place.info/smile/img/2465/o09a0208gstn/POTNsmile.gif
http://www.entertainment-place.info/smile/img/3200/n08d1214eybr/1by1.gif

[imahawki]

You can get an HP Windows Home Server for $500 that has built in gigabit ethernet and the first 750GB installed. It also allows you add odd/varying hard drive sizes, and comes with the ability to manage backups of your machines on your network, share media, etc. For $100 less than a network capable Drobo and $200 less if you include your first drive.

[klynam]

FYI - the DroboShare (networked option) is very slow. We use it as a stand alone file server at my office and it serves the purpose, but it is slow by modern data transfer standards. Good to see ethernet built into the pro version...

[pixelphotographer]

I Have the usb firewire little brother to this one and I absolutely love mine.
Its way better than any raid box i've owned simply because I can use different sized drives.
I cant do that in most raid arrays.
Also I like the hot swappable. Yeah you can do that on some raid boxes but not all.
Its just a nice simple setup thats easy to use for people who dont want to have to worry. Put a drive in take a drive out thats all I need to know.
How simple can that be.
Just my two cents worth anyway.
And by the way Im not scott bourne LOL :)