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This year we have decided to beef up our data storage and backup system. We have relied on a magnetic tape process for several years now and wanted something more accessible and reliable. Our biggest concern was the cost and complexity of implementation. We are a small shop and try to avoid calling in the IT professionals whenever possible. After looking at several solutions we made our choice and the first piece of the puzzle went live Friday, The Drobo FS by Data Robotics. The FS is a dead simple Network Attached Storage (NAS) system that is basically infinitely expandable and can both backup and share files across a network. What we liked best about the system is company’s BeyondRaid Technology that lets us just shove in any drive we want regardless of capacity, speed or manufacturer plus we can hot swap them if needed. As an added bonus, depending on how you configure it, the Drobo can protect itself from up to 2 HDD failures. The downside is this option dramatically cuts down on your total storage available and requires three separate drives to enable as the data is mirrored across two drives instead of the default single redundancy.
The FS has 5 bays and can accept up to 3 Tb drives meaning you can store up to 7.5 TB of data. We started with two Western Digital Green Caviar 2 TB
Over the next few weeks we will be working any kinks out of the system as well as determining if we need to add off-site storage for added security. Once all that is done, look for a full length article on our setup process and experiences to date.
Link: Drobo FS 5-bay Gbe Storage Array
for their exceptional durability. But they have always lacked in one area of utility, movement, i.e. the lack of wheels. We pack our AP’s full, so it would be great to have a little help moving them, especially if we are stuck out at job site alone.
