Data Robotics introduces 5-bay Drobo S, enterprise-ready DroboElite
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 23rd 2009 8:30AM
posted Nov 23rd 2009 8:30AM
Moving on, the DroboElite is carving a new path for the company, one that caters to high-maintenance enterprise users looking to serve up to 16 hosts while providing up to 255 smart volumes. The Elite is basically a Pro on steroids, with room for 8 hard drives, single- or dual-drive redundancy and an all-new connection method. If you'll recall, the Pro provided a single gigabit Ethernet port (iSCSI), FireWire 800 and USB 2.0; the Elite ships with two gigabit Ethernet sockets and nothing more (aside from a USB port used only for device management), so it's pretty clear that this one isn't looking to satisfy the home consumer market.
Both devices are shipping out today, with the Drobo S starting at $799 (with no HDDs) and being sold at the same outlets as the Drobo (which isn't vanishing, by the way). The DroboElite gets going at $3,499, though it'll only be sold through outlets such as CDW and the like who specialize in medium-to-large business sales. Oh, and just in case you're curious, the existing Drobo will continue on at its $399 price point (MSRP), though we're told that smart shoppers should find it for less near Black Friday and throughout the holiday season.
Want
Pricey.
Agreed. $799 is a bit much.
Very much agreed! And this is from a person who has a second gen Drobo (and LOVES it). That said, I still want one! :)
@(Unverified)
I'd rather pay $100 more for the Synology DS509+.
no network connection on a product aimed at enterprise level backup is a bit poor, especially considering the price.
I take it you didn't read the article at all. Drobo S, no ethernet, not enterprise. DroboElite, dual gigabit only, aimed at enterprise.
Troll again soon.
or maybe it's a case of misreading the article.
God there are some complete idiots on engadget at times.
And I wonder why I'm going to places like slashgear and gizmodo more.
Bye.
I agree about the lack of Ethernet port on ANY MODEL. Should be standard on this type of device.
>no network connection on a product aimed at enterprise level
>backup is a bit poor, especially considering the price.
Add to this the lack of formal Linux support and device event logging, and I have a hard time calling Drobo "enterprise level"
@(Unverified) I have to agree here. So drobo is going to exclude network connectivity because it is slower than a bus connected solution?? Um, well duh. But the advantages of having a network attached system like this outweigh the downside of it being limited to 1000Mbps.
Drobo, get your heads out of your asses. You seem to have good products and I'd actually love to give them a shot, but network connectivity is a #1 priority for a back-up and media serving solution.
Can pelase someone invent a drobo-killer?
inb4: Intel Entry Storage System SS4200
Agreed! Why, pray-tell, has no one brought a similar product to the home market?
you've got to be kidding right? There are *tons* of these things out there. Just off the top of my head, Netgear ReadyNas NV+.
Geesh!
As far as I know, none of those offer the upgradability that the Drobos do.
Yeah, nobody makes anything even close...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859321013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859110001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859110002
And if 4 bays isn't enough, you can build a 10-bay WHS server for under $300. You can build a 24-bay server for less than the cost of Drobo's 8-bay box. Don't like WHS? Use unRAID or FlexRAID-View. There are so many options to do do what the Drobo does (and more, and better, and cheaper) that I honestly don't know how they intend to stay in business.
The ability to expand the array one drive at a time.
The ability to mix and match all sorts of drive brands and sizes.
That's Drobo's advantage.
WHS, unRAID and FlexRAID-View do all that too. Drobo has no advantage.
According to the info I got from Data Robotics' Jim Sherhart Drobo Share isn't officially supported but will work with the Drobo S. Wondering what's right now...
Gigabit Ethernet should've been built-in on this revision!
Someone knows if drobo would work with a fon 2.0n?
Even though I had to read more than half-way through the first paragraph to understand what this device is, it appears to be for a very select market. I'll stick with G-Tech drives that offer a more polished interface.
Regards,
Dan
I have 2 original Drobos and they handle my backups OK. The problem is their crappy software. Sometimes It never sees the device connected to my PC even though I'm looking at 2 drives with files.
Don't get me started on the DroboShare...That's the biggest POS ever.
Ditto. People should be aware of what they're getting into. I've got two original DroboShares and while they work, neither one will upgrade to the latest firmware, one had to be reformatted after losing all its data, they're slower than anything, I often have to reboot the PC because it won't see the drives, etc etc.
i wish i could get a Drobo Pro with 16TB
Please Drobo! You are up to 4 models, and NONE have simple built in NAS support. Seems you are intent on requiring us to have a computer running all the time to serve out this data. (I don't consider the DroboShare, an additional product with terrible throughput, to be built in NAS support.)
I guess I wait another year for product #5?
Can anyone recommend a good small business automatic backup system?
Well, I like the offerings from G-Tech but that's just me. Their build quality and hassle free software is really hard to beat.
Regards,
Dan
Well, I like the offerings from G-Tech but that's just me.
Their build quality and hassle free software is really hard to beat.
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid.cfm
Regards,
Dan
I use a Netgear ReadyNas, with a RAID 5 variant and Shadow Protect Desktop software. This does image backup as often as I tell it to, with lots of flexibility as to configuration. It's a small office ( 1 person :)), but the idea should work up to a point. The only downside to Shadow Protect is that you have to write a small script to automate the validation of the back-up. Dumb I know. If that bothers you, try Genie-Soft Pro. That backs up files and is a bit more problematic, but the validation is automatic. There are other backup softwares out there but I can say, that, when I had a problem opening up a backup set, they did eventually help me fix it. ( I did have to go over the head of the crappy Chennai based standard tech support though. ) Lots of solutions and recomendations out there. This one has worked well for me.
Windows Home Server.
Are these better than anything QNAP offers?
I hope those two NIC ports can be used for MPIO and ESXi 4 for true 2GB throughput. Hopefully this thing can handle that kind of traffic, if it does it would be a GREAT demo unit for vmware guys/girls on the road.
The drobo just isn't a good deal, sorry. There are cheaper, more functional, real NAS's out there with proven reliability. Never have understood the appeal of this thing.
Come'on Drobo - $799?!? How about $599 with a $100 dollar discount for the holidays ($499). Let's get real.
Wow, just wow. Who buys these things? $800 bucks and you can't even hook it up to your network? A $2700 network connection tax for the elite? The Drobo concept is neat, but for the convenience it sure seems pricey. For those of you who don't mind a little work you should really check out UnRaid. I went that route and currently have 4TB of secure storage, which is expandable to 32TB, and paid under $1000 for the whole setup.
"In essence, the network throughput would crawl compared to a direct connection, so the company simply opted to avoid the headaches"
Wrong, in essence, Drobo will either a: introduce a model compatible with networking at a later date, or b: introduce a new network attachment at a later date.
I waited and waited and waited for the drobo.. Almost bought one until I saw they were without network.... I mean wtf? Anyway, more than happy that I did as I shelled out for a QNAP 439 in the end and am very very happy with it. I now have a stupid amount of space, iscsi and all that jazz (so your applications that don't support network drives don't know any difference). It's zippy (for continuous data transfer). Seek time could be better, but I notice no difference when -say -starting up an app or game from a mounted iscsi than I do if it's local.
I have 2 original Drobos and they handle my backups OK. The problem is their crappy software. Sometimes It never sees the device connected to my PC even though I'm looking at 2 drives with files.
Don't get me started on the DroboShare...That's the biggest POS ever.
Why is this at $799?! We waited for like 3+ years or more, I've forgotten, and then they finally add eSATA and raise the price by double? Drobo, why why why?!
Well, the original drobo is still available, so technically they didn't "raise" the price. The S is a new model in-between the regular drobo and the pro. Wish it's cheaper though, maybe just $100 more than the original, not double. I'm waiting for more coupons from the Twit network, or on sale on Amazon.
If you have to ask 'why do I need a Drobo when I can configure RAID 10 setups in my sleep' then you don't need a Drobo. It's for the rest of us that can't be bothered and/or are sick and tired of rebuilding RAID volumes.
I fully agree. I had a Buffalo NAS. It was cool enough but I did something with the settings one day and after that some of the data would show up when I looked at the drive from my desktop and some would show up when I looked at it on my laptop. I am NOT a network person nor do I intend to become one. I got a drobo and hooked it up to my desktop so that it can serve media files and I have not had one problem. . . well with the exception of the drive that failed (and for the record my data was safe).
I guess I must be the only one here that loves my drobo. I've been waiting forever for an eSATA version - stoked to see one finally. Certainly nothing to complain about from me....
I really like the flexibility of adding various hard drives to the Drobo, and it is cute and all that, but the price is a scorcher...
Why??
You can go the Backblaze route and get a few terabytes (try dozens), faster speed, higher redundancy and higher scalability for the same price, maybe even less...
http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/
Enterprise... SATA :-S
3.5K USD ... same price as Equal Logic or some lower end EMC units that do SAS as well - but more importantly offer redundant controllers and power supplies and cascading daisy chaining.
You'd have to have rocks in your head to pay for (or use) any of these drobo devices in an enterprise environment. Given what else is out there. By the experts no less. :-s
Drobo S: Add a port and double the price.
Drobo Elite: Add a port and double the price.
I guess they want to make a killing on the early adopters or existing customers.
And funny how their enterprise products have the same one year warranty as the 'consumer' stuff. And these prices, warranty should be for five years at least. Or do they not really stand behind their claims of reliability?