Drobo is previewing two new storage arrays that are designed to accelerate workflows for creative professionals and small businesses as well as dramatically expand the storage capabilities of home media enthusiasts.
The Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini storage arrays integrate several innovative features such as automated solid-state drive (SSD) acceleration, two Thunderbird ports and USB 3.0 connectivity.
"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," said Enderle Group principal analyst Rob Enderle. "With the new Drobo products, there is no question that this enigma is solved."
With respect to designing the new Drobo 5D, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said its engineering team had decided to build an entirely new Drobo platform from the ground up. "Though the outside shell looks very similar [to prior Drobo products], the inside is completely new," said Erick Pounds, director of product management at Drobo.
Industry-First SSD Acceleration
Both the Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini integrate industry-first SSD acceleration that enables device users to benefit from the instant storage and retrieval characteristics of SSDs as well as the capacity benefits of traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). Moreover, the new storage arrays are based on entirely new hardware and software architectures that Drobo claims can boost baseline performance by at least five times -- even prior to the addition of SSDs.
For example, an accelerator bay is built into the bottom side of the Drobo 5D that accommodates "a new type of solid-state device called an mSATA SSD," Pound said in a video interview posted online.
When we asked Drobo to explain more about this new type of SSD, the company noted that the big advantage of the mSATA form-factor is size. "The dimensions are 29.9 x 50.8 x 3.75 mm -- about the size of a car key," a company spokesperson said in an e-mail Thursday.
The smaller size enables Drobo to add between 60 and 120 GB of flash memory without increasing the size of the Drobo array or reducing overall capacity. As a result frequently accessed data can be stored on the SSD and with the HDDs storing the rest. "The end result is you get both high capacity and high performance," Drobo said. (continued...)
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