Drobo 5D and Mini With SSD Acceleration

Drobo, Inc. announced a new generation of storage devices for personal and professional users.

          Back of Drobo Mini

The Drobo 5D and Mini – small and portable storage array – are designed to accelerate workflows for creative professionals managing data-intensive files; home media enthusiasts looking to consolidate and accelerate video, photo, and music files; and small businesses that need fast, portable backup to protect large amounts of data.

Drobo has added performance to the new systems with Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, automated SSD acceleration and enhanced hardware and software architectures.

"In my 30 years covering the technology industry, I have not seen something as portable, scalable and powerful as the Drobo Mini," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst for The Enderle Group. "The SMB and prosumer market is clamoring for a plug-and-play storage product because it lacks the technical expertise and resources to manage complex storage systems. With the new Drobo products, there is no question that this enigma is solved." 

Both the Drobo 5D and Mini include SSD acceleration – utilising the performance benefits of SSDs and the capacity benefits of HDDs to deliver an automated system. In addition to supporting SSDs in any of their drive bays, both units include an additional bay that will accommodate a small-form-factor SSD to achieve performance boosts while making all drive bays available for high-capacity HDDs.

The products also support both fast Thunderbolt (2 ports) and USB 3.0 connectivity for both Mac and Windows users. The two Thunderbolt ports allow customers to daisy-chain devices to accommodate growth, and the USB 3.0 port ensures compatibility to millions of USB systems.

The new Drobo products have been also redesigned with new hardware and software architectures. These enhancements provide an increase in processing capability and several optimizations to BeyondRAID that will increase baseline performance by at least five times – prior to the addition of SSDs.

Save and Protect
All Drobos are based on patented BeyondRAID technology, which automates data-protection algorithms so users can enjoy safe data protection without having to be a storage expert. The new arrays add a safety feature that also protects user data during and after power outages, a feature that has traditionally been reserved for more expensive, enterprise storage.

"Our customers love Drobo’s ease of use, but they want it all – the easiest, the fastest, the safest for their data, plus the smallest and quietest," said Tom Buiocchi, Drobo CEO. "That’s why we’re here – our new Drobos will deliver on our promise of the best storage experience ever."

Drobo 5D: Capacity and Speed
The 5D is a storage system for creative professionals including photographers, videographers, graphic designers and individuals creating and working with amounts of rich media. In particular, professionals who are power users of Adobe and Apple applications including After Effects, Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Lightroom, Photoshop and Premier Pro are a fit for the new product, which is for editing, storing catalogs and backing up files of all types.

With up to five drives with an additional SSD bay, the 5D can support up to 16TB of protected, SSD-accelerated data. This is the equivalent of 32 million photographs, 4 million songs, 1 million HD movies, or 48 hours of uncompressed HD video – all accessible through lfast Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 interfaces.

Drobo Mini: Small, Powerful Storage Array
Mini redefines personal, professional, and portable digital storage. It combines a blend of storage technologies with ease-of-use, all in a sleek, small package, measuring seven inches square by less than two inches tall and weighing less than three pounds.

Drobo invented a patent-pending ‘carrierless’ design, which allows up to four 2.5" drives to be inserted into a Mini without the need for additional drive carriers or screws. The benefit to the customer is the ease of drive insertion and removal, and also flexibility; because the design accommodates a common industry drive size, Customers are free to choose the drive vendor, type (HDD or SSD), capacity, speed and price that meets their needs.

Since the Drobo Mini is portable, it features a ruggedized design that allows users to transport it with drives inside. In addition to being the first Drobo to offer this capability, the Mini features a custom miniature power supply and an optional carrying case, making it the storage for professionals who travel.

"I will shoot thousands of images per day at the Olympics, and having fast, protected storage is critical to my workflow," said Jeff Cable, one of the few photographers representing Team USA at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. "The new Drobo Mini provides Thunderbolt performance and RAID protection in a compact package that is not much larger than a single external drive. I can’t wait to get my hands on one."

Ordering and availability information will be announced in July. Pricing – including a Thunderbolt cable – is expected to start at under $650.