Portable Drobo Mini RAID With Four SSDs

Connected Data, Inc. announced the Drobo Mini with SSDs delivering as much as 80% more performance compared to a Mini configured with traditional spinning HDDs.

It is a portable, rugged and expandable SSD solution for filmmakers, photographers and creative professionals who need to capture and protect data while on location, and safely transport footage and photos back to the studio for post-production.

The Drobo Mini connects via Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 and features four 2.5″ SSD drive bays with an mSATA accelerator option in a package that is rugged, compact and portable, weighing less than three pounds.

Like all Drobo products, Drobo Mini protects data without user intervention, even in the event of multiple SSD drive failures. If a drive does fail, Drobo Mini automatically repairs itself and returns to a protected state while providing full access to data without performance being affected. Additional security is provided with battery backup that protects against data loss in the event of a sudden power outage ensuring that all data in flight is protected until power is restored.

Performance and Scalability
Using a Drobo Mini all flash array creative professionals can start with the capacity they need today and increase it by adding a new drive or replacing a smaller drive with a larger one.

Joe Disher, senior director of product marketing, Connected Data, explained: “A Drobo Mini configured with SSD drives allows users to cost effectively balance performance and capacity. Owners can start with the capacity a project needs today, and add capacity as required, without disruption and without breaking the bank. This allows customers to take advantage of larger SSDs and lower prices in the future.”

Why Schoolyard Films Loves Drobo Mini with SSDs
Even short films and documentaries require shooting large volumes of raw footage which must be backed-up and secured. Footage lost due to a faulty media card or HDD failure would create unacceptable production delays and cause projects to go over budget and past deadlines.

That is why Schoolyard Films, a producer of short nature and science documentaries for teachers and students in grades K-12, packs Drobo Minis with SSDs for its projects all over the world.

Schoolyard Films executive director, Tom Fitz, and digital imaging Technician, Glenn Allen say their crew typically uses RED Digital Cinema’s Epic cameras to capture high definition video at resolutions up to 6K. The Schoolyard team transfers and backups video footage while on location to their Drobo Minis with SSDs every night in order to protect their work and prepare for a new day.

“When we are in the field, we need a combination of durability, portability, speed and data protection. We rely on the Drobo Mini to be our workhorse,” added Allen. “The flexibility of being able to easily remove the SSD drives and personally carry them back from a shoot or ship them to another location with a Drobo Mini for post-production gives us peace of mind that our footage is safe and our client’s project is protected.”

“There are few things more tedious for creative professionals than having to spend hours in the field moving raw video footage and photographs from a camera’s media card to a more secure storage device,” said Disher. “Our customers have been asking for more performance with SSD drives on the portable Drobo Mini. This new offering delivers high performance storage with all the data protection, flexibility and ease of use in a portable form factor that creative professionals will appreciate.”

The Drobo Mini with SSD is available in three capacity bundles of 1TB, 2TB and 4TB starting at an MSRP of $1,199 through http://www.drobostore.com and select channel partners.