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Drobo's venerable 4-bay array gains USB 3.0 speed boost
Drobo's products have come a long way over the years. The company started with a 4-bay BeyondRAID array with a FireWire connection that was sold in one form or another for quite a few years, and has expanded the product line with everything from the mini (with 2.5" drives, Thunderbolt and USB) to the rack-mounted B1200i (12 bays and quad gigabit Ethernet ports). Now Drobo has updated the original 4-bay array (US$349.99) with USB 3.0, so let's see how this box of storage works. Specifications Dimensions: 5 in wide x 6.3 in high x 10.7 in depth (152.4 x 160 x 271.8 mm) Weight: 6 lb, 11.3 oz (3 kg) without hard drives, power supply, or packaging Connectivity: 1 USB 3.0 port Capacity: Up to four 3.5" SATA II/III hard drives. With four 4 TB drives installed, the device has 10.89 TB of available storage space (one drive redundancy). Time Machine compatible, and Drobo Dashboard now allows user to select the size of the Time Machine backup volume so that Apple's OS X backup software doesn't take up all of the available drive capacity. Power Fail Protection: In case of a power failure, all data in memory or cache is protected by being moved to onboard flash, where it resides until power is restored and it can be moved to your disk drives. OS X Compatibility: Requires OS X 10.7 or higher Design Highlights As with the previous incarnations of this drive array, the Drobo 4-bay comes in a solid black box with a magnetically-attached door that covers the drives. There's no need for drive "sleds" -- the drives simply slide right into the slots and lock into place. There are blue LEDs along the bottom of the drive that indicate percentage capacity during startup, as well as a status LED for each drive. Power is supplied by a "brick" with a six-foot cable. Setup is quite easy; I simply inserted the drives into the bays, plugged in the power, and turned on the drive. Once it went through its startup routine, I plugged the USB 3.0 cable into an empty port on a MacBook Pro, where it was recognized quickly by the Drobo Dashboard utility. The drive array was formatted using Disk Utility. So why would you want a Drobo instead of just purchasing a regular drive for backups? Expandability, for one -- you can replace smaller drives with larger ones in the future, just by popping out one of the existing drives and sliding in a new one in its place. RAID arrays also provide redundancy, so if one of your drives fails, your data is still safe. A Drobo array can be set up with dual drive redundancy, meaning that two drives can fail simultaneously and your data is still safe. Setting the array up this way reduces the available capacity quite significantly, though. One final note about design. The Drobo has a large cooling fan inside that is very quiet. If the device is installed on a desk or table near you, you might hear the slight noise of the fan as well as the occasional "rattle" of the drives. I found the sound from the Drobo to be quite acceptable when it was placed under my desk. Benchmarks The Drobo BeyondRAID drives are designed so that you start out "small" with whatever drives you have on hand or can afford, then swap them out with drives of larger capacity as time goes by. The review array was shipped with two 1 TB drives and two 2 TB drives for an out-of-the-box working capacity of 3.63 TB. For the purposes of testing external drives and RAID arrays, we traditionally use the Intech SpeedTools QuickBench 4.0 app to run multiple cycles of read/write tests. The Drobo was directly connected to a MacBook Pro with Retina display using the provided USB 3.0 cable. To ensure accuracy in testing, I performed a 100-cycle complete test. This subjects the drive to sequential and random read and write tests with file sizes from 4K to 100 MB, then graphically or textually displays that information to show the "sweet spots" for a specific drive or array. For example, if your work involves shuffling around a lot of very large files, you'll probably want a drive that has peak read/write speeds for files around your average file size. Here are the test results, compared to a Drobo mini running on USB 3.0 (our full review of the Drobo mini can be found here): Sequential Read: 97.030 MB/Sec (72.593 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) Sequential Write: 75.976 MB/Sec (112.456 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) Random Read: 31.969 MB/Sec (62.968 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) Random Write: 49.505 MB/Sec (70.996 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) Large Read: 227.036 MB/Sec (220.192 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) Large Write: 224.274 MB/Sec (242.503 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) Extended Read: 233.445 MB/Sec (184.446 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) Extended Write: 207.724 MB/Sec (161.916 MB/Sec for Drobo mini via USB 3.0) With smaller files sizes, the Drobo isn't a speed demon. When looking at larger file sizes, the Drobo is as fast or faster than its little bro the mini when running on USB 3.0. However, compared to a Thunderbolt-equipped RAID array like the CalDigit T3 we tested in March of 2014, the Drobo absolutely crawls. It's not surprising that Drobo didn't add Thunderbolt to the 4-bay -- as the Drobo mini benchmarks demonstrate, adding a faster interface doesn't necessarily give a RAID array faster throughput. Conclusion Drobo's namesake product received USB 3.0 connectivity and a much lower price, making the 4-bay BeyondRAID array a bargain for anyone who wants expandable and redundant storage without spending the nest egg. Those looking for speed for video editing and similar requirements would be better served by faster competitors or others members of the Drobo product line. Drobo's product build quality, ease of setup, and amazing management tool (Drobo Dashboard) definitely make this product a standout despite its relatively slow throughput. Rating: 3-1/2 stars out of 4 stars possible
The 3rd Generation Drobo: Faster and less expensive
Drobo announced the 3rd generation of its 4-bay namesake device yesterday, and by any indication the newest member of the Drobo family should be quite popular. Sporting a pair of USB 3.0 ports, the Drobo 4-bay starts at just US$349 for the bare box that you can then begin filling with any 3.5" SATA II/III drives that you may have. As before, Drobo's BeyondRAID technology allows you to mix-and-match drives so that you can start off with smaller drives and replace them with higher-capacity drives as you can afford them. The company announced a new feature concurrent with the release of the new array: enhanced support for Apple's Time Machine. Previously, if you connected a Drobo array to your favorite Mac and used it for Time Machine backups, those backups would eventually eat up the entire capacity of the array. Now you can set aside part of the total capacity of the Drobo array to work with Time Machine, freeing up the additional capacity for day-to-day storage. The new Drobo also features a redesigned architecture that provides speeds about three times faster than those available with the previous generation and array rebuild times about four times faster than before. The company also added battery backup as icing on the storage cake, giving the new box more protection from power outages by temporarily storing in-progress transactions until the array powers up again. If you're a current Drobo owner and want to migrate to the new device, the company is offering $50 one of the new units bring the price tag to a very affordable $299. Just pull your drives out of the old Drobo and stick 'em in the new unit to take advantage of the enhancements. That deal will be available through June 9, 2014 on sales made through www.drobostore.com and some authorized resellers. The devices will begin to ship in late April, and we expect to have a full TUAW review of the 3rd generation Drobo soon after.
Drobo 5D: Speedy, expandable Thunderbolt storage for professionals
Data Robotics (now Drobo) was the first company to make expandable RAID storage easy, and with the current Drobo line of BeyondRAID devices they've now made the devices faster through the use of Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 connectivity, as well as the Drobo Accelerator Bay's ability to use an mSATA SSD for fast caching. In this TUAW review, I'll take a look at the Drobo 5D (US$664 on Amazon), a five-bay device designed to give creative professionals fast and inexpensive RAID storage. Setup Setup of the device is simple -- I didn't even use the instructions, since from past experience I know that you basically just hook up power, install drives, and connect the device to your Mac. Well, that was fine, but my OS X Mavericks-equipped MacBook Pro did't want to see the Drobo until I re-installed the Drobo Dashboard software a second time. After that minor annoyance, it was time to use the Drobo Dashboard app to format the drive. Drobo provided three 1 TB drives, a 2 TB unit, and a 3 TB drive to fill the bays in the device. The device also contained an mSATA SSD in the Drobo Accelerator Bay (below). Once formatted, the device had 7.27 TB of storage capacity, of which 4.47 TB was available for data. 931.50 GB was set aside for expansion (if I decided to put, for example, three more 3 TB drives in place of the existing 1 TB drives), and 1.88 TB was used for protection. What's great about Drobo's BeyondRAID technology is that it's possible to replace failed drives or hot-swap different drives without fear of data loss. I used to own a Drobo Pro, and found it simple to add drives and replace small capacity drives with larger ones at will. The device not only has Thunderbolt connectors (two), but can also be used with USB 3.0. Cables are included in the box, so it's literally a plug-and-play storage solution. The two Thunderbolt ports are perfect if you wish to daisy-chain Drobo 5Ds and add in a monitor or two... One last comment, although it really doesn't have anything to do with setup -- the new pricing on the Drobo products is a refreshing sign. It will put the expandability and safety of RAID storage into the hands of many more professionals. Benchmarks Benchmarking the Drobo 5D was done with Intech Software's SpeedTools QuickBench 4.0 software. To ensure accuracy in testing, I performed a 100-cycle complete test. This subjects the drive to sequential and random read and write tests with file sizes from 4K to 100 MB, then graphically or textually displays that information to show the "sweet spots" for a specific drive or array. For example, if your work involves shuffling around a lot of very large files, you'll probably want a drive that has peak read/write speeds for files around your average file size. The tests were performed both with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. Using Thunderbolt, the standard test results (nine different file sizes between 4 KB and 1024 KB) showed average speeds as follows: Sequential Read: 140.504 MB/Sec Sequential Write: 93.245 MB/Sec Random Read: 116.435 MB/Sec Random Write: 70.410 MB/Sec For the large test -- transfer sizes between 2 and 10 MB -- the average results were: Large Read: 341.327 MB/Sec Large Write: 282.060 MB/Sec And for the extended test -- transfer sizes between 20 and 100 MB -- the average results were: Extended Read: 255.953 MB/Sec Extended Write 262.864 MB/Sec For USB 3.0, the results were Sequential Read: 99.533 MB/Sec Sequential Write: 111.509 MB/Sec Random Read: 94.895 MB/Sec Random Write: 80.605 MB/Sec Large Read: 217.975 MB/Sec Large Write: 219.885 MB/Sec Extended Read: 198.243 MB/Sec Extended Write: 228.985 MB/Sec These results are all much, much better than what we saw for the first-generation Drobo Pro under FireWire 800. For those tests, there were only two results -- write and read speeds -- and they weren't that good. Write speed was 29.3 MB/Sec, while read speed was 46.0 MB/Sec. The Drobo 5D is much faster than the old Drobo Pro, especially when using a Thunderbolt connection. It might just be the fast connection, but I'm willing to bet that the addition of the SSD accelerator bay has also provided a boost to performance. Physical Attributes In terms of the physical size and weight of the Drobo 5D, it's barely larger than the original Drobo with four bays. The 5D measures in at 10.3 long x 7.3 high x 5.9 wide, and weighs just 8.5 lbs without drives and power supply. I have to admit that one thing that used to drive me nuts about my original DroboPro was the sound of the device. I could constantly hear the hard drives chattering away. The Drobo 5D appears to be much quieter, as I could barely hear the device even when it was in the middle of read/write testing. Since each bay can be filled with an SSD if you have the money and the inclination, you could really have a silent and fast BeyondRAID array working for you. Conclusion Having used a DroboPro for several years, the new Drobo 5D is a refreshing update to the creative professional storage solution. It retains the ease of use and setup of the original Drobo products, but brings an amazing amount of speed to the game. TUAW will be reviewing some other Drobo products in the near future, including the Drobo 5N NAS network-attached storage product and the Drobo Mini. Pros Easy setup and configuration Easily expandable storage; as drive capacities increase, drives can be replaced with higher capacity gear Can be set up for single or double-disk redundancy Drives are hot-swappable SSD caching provides amazing speeds Dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining Quiet operation New, lower pricing Cons May not be fast enough for video professionals Who is it for? Anyone with a need for relatively fast, expandable, and reliable storage in vast quantities
Data Robotics launches Drobo for Business line, new 12-bay SAN option
Data Robotics has certainly flexed its biz muscle before, but this is nothing short of a full-out assault on the boardroom. Or at least the boardroom's IT closet. The outfit's new Drobo for Business line is being revealed today, with three pieces of hardware making up the initial line. The new trio is primarily aimed at small businesses, but even average consumers in need of some serious at-home storage may find something worth investigating. Though the system designs are obviously built for use in rack-mount arrangements, you'll still find the same BeyondRAID setup that existing Drobo users have grown familiar with. At least initially, the company will be offering an 8-bay file sharing Drobo with remote backup, an 8-bay SAN (iSCSI-attached) Drobo and a 12-bay SAN (also iSCSI-attached) with expanded redundancy features, support for thin provisioning and deprovisioning and new data-aware tiering technology. Those who buy in will also be treated to a bolstered level of DroboCare business support, a refreshed management interface tailor to the needs of SMB, new functionality / redundancy and boosted performance from top to bottom. The former two are available now -- with pricing to start at just north of $2,000 ($8,500 on the 12-bay) -- while the latter can be reserved as we speak for a Q2 delivery. %Gallery-115761%
Data Robotics adds the new DroboPro FS to the family
The Drobo family of BeyondRAID storage devices has been very popular with Mac prosumers, creative professionals, and small businesses since the first product shipped in 2007. Slowly but surely, the company has been building up its product line. Data Robotics now has three Direct-Attach Storage (DAS) devices, the Drobo, Drobo S, and DroboPro; a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device, the Drobo FS; and a Storage Area Network (SAN) device, the DroboElite. In a recent interview with Mark Fuccio of Data Robotics, he noted that customers were asking for a NAS device with more than the five drive bays of the Drobo FS, and they also wanted redundant network connectivity and a simple way to back up files offsite. The result? A new product that was announced this morning, the DroboPro FS. The new product has the eight drive bays of the DroboPro and can be physically situated on a desktop or placed in a standard rack mount with an optional kit. It has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, which can be used in either a standalone mode to connect to a different subnet or in a redundant network protection mode.
Data Robotics announces new Drobo FS
Data Robotics has just announced a new member of the Drobo family -- the Drobo FS. The new device is designed to serve as Network Attached Storage with all of the advantages of the Data Robotics BeyondRAID technology, with the added bonus of drop-dead simple setup. In a pre-release interview with Mark Fuccio of Data Robotics last week, he noted that setup on the device is as easy as installing the Drobo Dashboard software on a computer on the network, and then letting it handle all of the setup decisions for you. The device features a dual core processor, with one core running the embedded proprietary OS and the other core running Linux. The processor brings a lot of speed to the Drobo FS -- in testing, the device had about four times the speed of the former Drobo NAS solution, which was a Drobo plus the DroboShare device. Data Robotics noted that using Jumbo Frames, read speeds of up to 50-55MB/sec are possible. The Drobo FS has five storage bays, each of which can hold one standard 3.5" SATA hard drive. At the present time, the largest capacity of these drives is 2 TB, for a total of 9.1 TB of capacity or 5.44 TB with dual-disk redundancy (two drives can fail and the array can still operate flawlessly). As drive capacities grow in the future, the 2 TB drives can be replaced with larger drives, increasing the capacity of the array even more. The FS has a single Gigabit Ethernet port on the back for its connection to the world.
Drobo FS: finally, Data Robotics releases a Drobo NAS drive
Say it with us now: "finally!" We've been yearning for a true Drobo NAS drive ever since Data Robotics first introduced its "intelligent" storage robot back in the heyday that was 2007, and after coming darn close with the DroboShare, the company has finally produced a bona fide networked storage solution. The Drobo FS (for 'File Server') utilizes the same chassis as the Drobo S, and in terms of features, it can do everything that box can, too. What differentiates it, however, is that astoundingly gorgeous gigabit Ethernet jack on the rear, not to mention a new dual-core CPU, increased RAM, a revised Linux kernel and enough overall tweaks to make it perform 4x faster than the DroboShare. We spoke with Mark Fuccio, Senior Director of Products and Markets, who obliged when we dug for even more details. For starters, this device will boast five bays, and users can mix, match, upgrade and swap drives at will, just like any other Drobo. It'll also support network backups of Macs and PCs, and while you won't find a Time Machine stamp, the Time Tamer app available in the DroboApps portal will enable support for Mac loyalists who insist on using that over Data Robotic's (likely superior) solution. It also ships with a BitTorrent client that keeps your transfers humming even when your PC is off, and it'll handle iTunes, UPnP and DLNA streaming to boot. Firmware upgrades will be handled over the network, and users can poke around for even more applications by visiting the company's website. One app that stood out to us, however, was one that'll be thrown in by the recently renamed Oxygen Cloud; in essence, this will allow users to turn their Drobo FS into "the cloud," enabling colleagues or kids to remotely access the Drobo as if it were some faraway, magical data drive connected to a mythical T3. Yeah, this definitely feels more like a corporate thing than anything else, but it's certainly something that you won't find on those "other" NAS drives. It should be noted, however, that the app will only support a single user for free -- if you're buying for a corporation or small business, you'll need to hit up Oxygen Cloud to procure a multi-user license. Aside from nabbing SMB and AFP support, Mark told us that users could reasonably expect to see file transfers between 30MB/sec and 40MB/sec, but that's obviously subject to vary based on strain. As for pricing? Data Robotics told us that the new Drobo FS will be on sale globally today through the typical channels (Amazon, CDW, B&H Photo, Dell and NewEgg), with the empty unit selling for $699. A 4.5TB model (1.5TB x 3) will go for $999, while a 7.5TB version (5 x 1.5TB) lists for $1,149 and a 10TB edition (2TB x 5) for $1,449. Or you could just enter to win one here. Oh, and as for that DroboShare we mentioned earlier? It's being phased out with the introduction of the Drobo FS, so if you're jonesing for one, you might want to get that order placed. %Gallery-89838%
TUAW's review of the DroboPro, plus a discount deal for readers
Data Robotics delivered their "super-sized" version of the Drobo earlier this year. DroboPro has 8 drive bays into which you can drop 3.5" SATA drives of almost any capacity, from the old 160 GB model you've been using to hold the backup of your iTunes library to that 2 TB Western Digital Caviar drive you just purchased. Using a proprietary storage technology called BeyondRAID, Data Robotics makes it easy to use a DroboPro to give you a big box 'o storage right now, and easily expand in the future.Data Robotics recently lent me a DroboPro for a detailed review, and I was able to give it a thorough workout. Read on to find out more about the DroboPro and an excellent deal available to readers of TUAW.
Data Robotics goes large with 8-bay DroboPro
Not sure if you've been keeping tabs, but it's been just shy of a full year since we've seen a new piece of hardware from the labs of Data Robotics. 60,000 Drobos later, we're being formally introduced to the bigger, stronger and more capacious DroboPro. As the name implies, this 8-bay beast is truly aimed at small businesses and creative professionals, but there's nothing here that the average consumer can't fall in love with. Generally speaking, everything here has remained the same as the second-gen Drobo: it looks similar, it uses the same genius BeyondRAID intelligent data storage technology and it's not really meant to be used on networks. Interested to hear more? Hop on past the break for all the dirt.
