External Storage solution: Drobo

An interesting external data storage solution, though pricey at the moment.
Drobo

 

I always like it, when a computer works for me and this robot, gifted with Artificial Intelligence, manages my system/data storage automatically, which means I can be more lazy than ever before.

 

The market of storage appliances is expanding: Windows Home Server, Drobo, NAS appliances (Thecus, Infrant, Buffalo, Iomega, etc), DIY (FreeNAS, etc). Different solutions for different budgets, needs and computer knowledge.
There's no excuse to not backing up your data.

 

Why dumb-downed no-RAID storage is bad for consumers
Home RAID vs backup?

 

Yeah
I saw this too
First impression left me drooling with excitement
Interesting device: great concept and implementation.
Exxy
Some limitations
Something I would like to have, ...but... maybe not just yet...?wait for ethernet/NAS/printserver.

I cant find any testing that demonstrates valid restores
CAnt see a simulated power failure or hard reboot in the middle of a copy/restore
Seems there may be a long 'rebuild' time when a new bigger disc is put in or there is a disc failure.

George Ou took another more insightful look after the blistering attack linked above :
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=508
Tom's HW usual thorough review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/27/meet_drobo/
George Ou: alternate DIY blog:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=829

Just for example: ?competitive more fully featured tool, but, without drobo ease of use
Same Price
http://www.usr.com/products/networking/networking-product.asp?sku=USR8700

Not even touched on the WHS as competitor dont know enough about it, yet.

These incredibly sophisticated devices with a price point of </= $500 ( closer to $1000 with discs I suppose) are now easily accessible to the home user and with file sharing for various media and home networks, and massive storage requirements for all your pRon your movie collection are really moving quickly from big office and business systems to home office and small biz networks.

Sorry, syntactically elephantine that last para: but you get the point?.

 

Thanx, interesting links. Possibly a little time on the market will bring the price down, and they really do need to fireware it or eSATA, ideally the latter. One to watch though, I like its ease of use and flexibility.

 

Have fun

 

That's pretty pricey too at over £600

 

Yep, they are high-end NAS appliances with everything but the kitchen sink
Or, if you want, high-end DAS.
/me drools

 

Yeah, I have no need of that sort of thing, Drobo would most likely do my job, and wouldn't tax my tech knowhow , will keep an eye on that one.

 

Different tools for different needs

 

Bill Gates most probably uses "Windows Home Server" to store his contaminated data.

 

Bill Gates is running a Debian file server, but he won't tell you anything about it

 

Heh heh heh
Yeah I noticed that when I had coffee with B&M last week at their place. All the home systems used to crash before they got the Debian system

Thanks for those links Lucas: I actually may need some of these tools soon for work> I had been looking at the Thecus, hadn't realised NetGear had a nice looking bit of kit there.

Amazing how the prices for the HW has dropped ,the functionality and extendability has increased, this really high tech stuff is now so accessable.

Most of my "shopping" has been trolling the home stuff pages till recently.
For someone like me who has cobbled together utilitarian set-ups until now: It's not till you get away from the floor sellers of the local retail guys and the mass market comp mags that you realise for a few $$ more the power and utility of the equipment goes through the roof: open up a new world of options. It's occasionally hard to find support for very small biz like mine as the margins for the local IT guys shrink as the size of the install and contract shrinks.

I have to upgrade the office software : DB/Accounting/Imaging storage.
Interesting what we take for granted now: my neighbour who has just gone through this same effort and will be using the same softs has now got storage needs for his office of over 10G in his db within 6 montrhs for a similar size operation. Realistically he expects this growth rate to continue for 10 years. Amazing what we take for granted now.
( remember I wrote my first and only code in Fortran on punch cards )

Heh: fortunately I can learn from where he has had problems: we cooperate pretty well.

Then have to extend the home stuff as well: server, VPN blah blah blah..

Most of the time I'm not even sure what I might benefit from and even find it difficult describing and transforming what I want into reality. This is frankly not my area of expertise by any means.

ATM I'm being screwed over by the owners of my building who are not willing to upgrade their data cabling; so somewhat unbelievably from my floor on our building there are NO offices with direct cable access and even having enough 'phone lines for ADSL is difficult. Internet wifi in Oz is awful: expensive slow and often unreliable. ( how about $70/m for 1G up and down inclusive !! at very slow speed. ) I love the bloody mindedness of it all. PITA

Regards.

If you happen to know any other good links...
HEh if any tech srvice company in Oz happens to be reading this...

@Pete

lol, Ooohh such a dinosaur, surprised you can get by with such small capacity, c'mon, catch up

 

We were very close to having compulsory traffic metering. When you upset the nerds, you should be prepared for the worst

What are you interested in? NAS? DAS? RAID?
If you want, I can search in my favourite folders and give you some links.

 

heh heh

Yes Thx.

 

OK, expect them tomorrow, it's 9:20 pm (GMT-3) here.