Drobo Extends Auto-Tiering Capabilities on B1200i Hybrid Systems

Drobo, Inc. introduced several new models of its family of storage systems.

Included in the group are both higher- and lower-end models, the B1200i, which features a patent-pending tiering technology that allows customers to enjoy the performance benefits of SSD technology and the capacity of traditional HDD in a single system.

The new models, which include several higher-capacity and lower-priced versions of the Drobo B800 series, also embrace 3TB hard-drive technology, giving Drobo customers more capacity.   
 
Drobo data-aware tiering technology is an approach that allows customers to automatically benefit from the capacity of HDDs and the speed of SSDs in a single package. SMBs can immediately and dynamically optimize their application performance without technical expertise, complex system configuration or traditionally high prices that define other storage systems with these capabilities.
 
The new models are suited for virtualized environments, workgroup projects and backup applications, offering more cost-effective performance acceleration and 50% more capacity than previous models. With automated data tiering, 3TB technology and ‘Drobo-like’ ease-of-use all in one box, new models give customers further choice and affordability.
 
More Choice and Flexibility
The B1200i SSD combines the low-cost capacity of traditional HDDs with the low-latency, fast transfers in SSDs, delivering up to 300% higher performance over previous versions of the product. It is used by SMBs as primary storage for up to 250 users or as tier-two storage and backup for departments in larger organizations.
 
The B800i and B800fs provide additional solutions for businesses needing primary or backup storage. The B800i SAN provides reliable storage to servers running applications such as file services, data protection, e-mail and server virtualization that usually are reserved for more expensive enterprise solutions. Using BeyondRAID technology, all business products enable customers to leverage different drive capacities, allowing for expansion as larger drives become available. With Drobo, expansion is automatic, and access to data is always maintained.
 
"Small businesses should take a look at Drobo from a capacity perspective," said Scott Lowe, founder and managing consultant at The 1610 Group. "Being able to put SSDs into the hardware so the cost per gigabyte is lower is a great feature. It also makes the random restore and backup of data a more enjoyable experience."
 
"I love the simple scalability," said Marc Wrubleski, the technical manager of the mathematics department at University of Calgary. "I’m putting in a B800i for a researcher who needs 10TB today and will need 20TB later on. To just add or replace disks without any system reconfiguration is such a great feature."
 
New Drobo systems include (MSRP listed):

• B1200i with 27.6TB: 12-bay SAN; nine 3TB SAS drives and three 200GB SSDs with Data-Aware Tiering; $17,999
• B1200i with 18.6TB: 12-bay SAN; nine 2TB SAS drives and three 200GB SSDs with Data-Aware Tiering; $16,999
• B1200i with 12.6TB: 12-bay SAN; six 2TB SAS drives and three 200GB SSDs with Data-Aware Tiering; $15,499
• B800i with 24TB: 8-bay SAN; eight 3TB SATA drives; $5,699
• B800i with 16TB: 8-bay SAN; eight 2TB SATA drives; $4,699
• B800i with 8TB: 8-bay SAN; four 2TB SATA drives: $3,699
• B800fs with 24TB: 8-bay NAS; eight 3TB SATA drives: $4,699
• B800fs with 16TB: 8-bay NAS; eight 2TB SATA drives: $3,699
• B800fs with 8TB: 8-bay NAS; four 2TB SATA drives: $2,699