Data Robotics debuts enterprise-ready DroboElite, five-bay Drobo S
Data Robotics on Monday announced the enterprise-ready DroboElite and the five-bay Drobo S, which both join the standard 4-bay Drobo and the popular eight-bay DroboPro.
The DroboElite (pictured below) caters to enterprise users seeking to serve up to 16 hosts and provide up to 255 smart volumes. Much like the DroboPro, the DroboElite has eight drive bays, single- or dual-drive redundancy and an all-new connection method: two gigabit Ethernet sockets only, instead of the single iSCSI Ethernet port, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 found on the DroboPro.
The DroboElite's sole USB port is intended for device management only.
The new Drobo S (pictured at top of post) adds a fifth drive bay to allow for two drives to fail without any data being lost, a feature formerly only available on the DroboPro.
The Drobo S offers an ARM chip with a 50 percent faster clock speed compared to the standard Drobo, the company says, as well as 20 to 25 percent faster FireWire 800 performance and the addition of an eSATA port (the device also offers a USB 2.0 port).
Users can switch between single- and dual-drive redundancy using the device's software control panel. The DroboShare NAS adapter will not work on the Drobo S due to performance issues with network throughput.
Both devices are available today.
The DroboElite is available for $3,499 and is only available from CDW and other SMB outlets, though it'll only be sold through outlets such as CDW and the like who specialize in medium-to-large business sales.
The Drobo S starts at $799 (no drives) and is available anywhere you find the standard $399 Drobo.