LaCie Pushes Thunderbolt 2 Solutions

After the introduction of the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2, LaCie, S.A. took advantage of NAB 2014 to unveil the rest of its Thunderbolt 2 lineup.

The company unveiled three products focused around professional content creators needs: the updated version of the 2big, 5big and an 8big rack solution. By upgrading its lineup to Thunderbolt 2, the company tries to keep its ‘leader in Thunderbolt’ position against competitors like Promise and others.

2big Thunderbolt 2
Released in February 2012, the first 2big generation with Thunderbolt 1 was starting to be outperformed by competing solutions in the prosumer market. With the bump to Thunderbolt 2 the company did more than simply stick a new connectors onto a former product.

The new generation has two Thunderbolt 2 ports along with USB 3.0, making it compatible with both Mac and PC with no need for formatting. Maximum speed announced is 420MB/s (RAID-0), a 40% bump compared to the first gen. The 2-bay solution can hold up to 12TB of storage thanks to the new 6TB Seagate 7200rpm HDDs. Also, the unit does not rely on a software RAID controller anymore to facilitate transitions between RAID-0, RAID-1 and JBOD, a hardware switch has been added. HDDs are also hot-swappable.

The design and casing too have been updated. The product has a smaller volume but is larger, and all the plugs and the RAID controller have been hidden behind a door that also serve as a cable lock to avoid cables being disconnected when the unit is moved.

The storage component can be stopped with a quick press on the front button to save power while still using the daisy-chain functionality. It uses a larger Noctua fan to improve heat dissipation and reduce noise.

5big Thunderbolt 2
The updated 5big with Thunderbolt 2 has gone through more or less the same process than the 2-bay model. It has two Thunderbolt 2 ports but no USB 3.0.

Equipped with new Seagate 6TB HDDs, it supports up to 30TB of storage capacity with speeds up to 1,050MB/s in RAID-0. It is also equipped with a hardware RAID controller that supports JBOD, RAID-0, -1, -10, -5 and -6 modes. A welcomed update compared to the previous model that could only support JBOD and RAID-0 and -1.

By default the unit is shipped with a RAID-5 configuration, a compromise between data security and performance.

The design is mostly the same except for the larger Noctua fan. The configuration for the product is done through a web interface, the LaCie Raid Manager.

8big Rack
The last product introduced at NAB is an industrial-designed rack with an aluminum case.

It’s the first LaCie rackmount device with Thunderbolt 2 and it is, overall, a nicely designed storage solution for professional with a few useful tweaks.

The 1U unit can hold up to 8 disks for a maximum storage capacity of 48TB. It supports RAID -0, -1, -10, -5 and – 6 along with JBOD and has the same hardware controller than the 5-bay solution for connection to any workstation without configuration. Performance are said to reach up to 1,350MB/s.

It has two power supplies, and HDDs along with fans are tool-less and hot-swappable. For easier management an array of LED on the front indicate disk health. An ID button can trigger an alarm to easily locate which unit needs supervision once you are behind all of the stacked rack. A cable management arm is also present to avoid accidental disconnection of cables.

It features two Thunderbolt 2 ports for daisy-chaining. It enables a Mac Pro user for example to reach a total of 1.7PB of storage capacity (if nothing else is plugged).

The product will be available in 4 and 8 disks configuration.

With the introduction of its consumer-centric products during CES 2014 and now its professional lineup at NAB, LaCie started its year with a major overhaul of its portfolio. No less than seven new products were unveiled in the last three months. The Thunderbolt 2 product upgrade cycle, that started with the LBD 2, was very promising and this incremental upgrade to its lineup could have some pretty big results. The company got onboard with Thunderbolt 2 early to accommodate the Mac Pro users and media professionals working with 4K video streams.

But the prices, yet to be announced for the new products to be available this quarter, should temper some spirits.