14 DAY TRIAL // The Drobo is a product that is able to preserve the integrity of stored data in case of hard-drive failure by using the revolutionary but easily usable BeyondRAID storage technology that protects data against a hard-disk crash. Data will be securely backed up as long as the Drobo itself is equipped with more than a single disk. Now, Data Robotics is expanding this famous product line with the Drobo S and the Drobo Elite.
We will first speak of the Drobo S. The product uses the eSATA connectivity (or FireWire 800 and USB 2.0.) and offers increased storage capacities and higher running speeds compared with the current Drobo model. The Drobo S is 50% faster than the current four-drive Drobo and offers 90% of the performance capabilities of the Drobo Pro (high-end version released in April). According to the company, tests showed the Drobo S as capable of 80 MB/s transfer speeds. In addition, compared with previous models, the Drobo S has space for an extra drive, reaching a maximum capacity of up to 10TB (five 2TB drives).
Still, the data-security features of the Drobo S are the true upside of this product. Drobo in general is designed to protect data from becoming corrupted in case of hard drive failure. In the case of the Drobo S, however, the unit can survive the failure of not just one but two drives. This it does via the “Data Scrubbing” feature, through which the device reads every single block of data and repairs any corrupted entries. This capability for data restoration makes the Drobo appealing to businesses, since it increases the overall reliability. In addition, the BeyondRAID technology performs preemptive “scrubbing” operations that ensure that data is only written to healthy drive areas.
The Second addition is the Drobo Elite. This product is superior to the Drobo S both regarding storage capabilities (eight-drive capacity allows for a maximum of 16TB) and speed (it has a faster processor). The Elite may come with single- or dual-drive redundancy. In addition, it is possible to program up to 255 smart volumes, which, although supposedly created, will not actually be allocated any storage space until data is written to them. As such, if a workplace has multiple machines, for instance, the Drobo Elite can assign a volume to each of them, allowing each volume to be locally mounted on the respective machines. This implies the possibility for each individual to personalize their data while still allowing it to be centrally stored.
Unfortunately, the major disadvantage of these two Drobo newcomers is their price. The Drobo S costs a stupefying $799 when bough alone, and, if populated with five 2TB drives, it costs an enormous $1,799. The price of the Elite is even more outrageous, with it, as standalone, costing $3,499, and $5,899 if fully populated with eight 2TB drives. Still, even with such prices, Drobos have been selling heavily, with over 85,000 units moved over the past two years. All that remains is to see the rate of adoption of these two products among businesses.
More information on the full line of Drobo products may be found here.