Storage specialist Data Robotics, known as Drobo, announced the launch of a
new product, improved data protection capabilities and a reseller agreement
with HP Small Business Direct, HP’s online store focused on small businesses.
The Drobo S system, which offers support for multiple storage volumes and
capacity of up to 32TB and beyond, leverages USB
3.0 technology. Drobo also announced the availability of Sync, remote backup
for small businesses, which is available with the company’s new DroboPro FS
system. All Drobos feature BeyondRAID technology.
Both the Drobo S and the DroboPro FS with Drobo Sync are available in HP’s
Small Business Direct online store for small business solutions along with the
Drobo, Drobo FS and DroboPro models. Drobo Sync allows a business customer to
configure and begin a full remote backup in just minutes with a few mouse
clicks, and is included free of charge with all new DroboPro FS models.
“When USB 3.0 was first released, many
storage companies quickly added a simple connector to their systems, which does
not truly allow small to medium-size businesses to take advantage of its
promise,” said Mark Peters, a senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.
“It’s clear, however, that Drobo has specifically engineered the Drobo S to
incorporate USB 3.0, making performance and
ease of use the defining characteristics, which is something small businesses
will appreciate."
The Drobo S also features enhanced backward compatibility with USB
2.0 systems (laptops, PCs and servers) to provide further investment protection
and “future-proofing”—the company said the accelerated performance of the Drobo
S is up to 10 times faster than existing USB
2.0 solutions. In addition, users can enable the dual-drive redundancy option
to protect their data from failure of up to two hard drives, and businesses can
switch back to single-drive redundancy at any time. Even when sitting idle,
Drobo S will continually examine the blocks and sectors on every drive,
flagging questionable areas.
“Today’s announcements will serve to further accelerate what our customers
and partners fondly call the ‘Drobo invasion,’” said Tom Buiocchi, CEO
of Drobo. “Our quest to provide the best storage experience just progressed
significantly with today’s new product advancements and our growing
partnerships in the industry.”