The 8D is the first new product launched after the StorCentric acquisition by Dobro, a dynamic company based in San Jose, California, specializing on next generation data storage products for small and medium businesses and individual professionals. Unlike other external storage options, Drobo lets users hot-swap drives, mix and match drives of different capacities, speeds, and types - SSD, SATA, SAS - and perform zero-support drive pack migration. This means that users can optimize storage economies without worrying about drive order, data loss, downtime, or compatibility. They can swap in drives as needed, while the Drobo is running.
And the new Dobro 8D has the feature set needed to supercharge creative workflows and act as primary storage for anyone requiring reliable, easy to use, high capacity solutions. This is basically an external storage chassis featuring 8 bays, two Thunderbolt 3 Ports, and supporting up to 128 Terabytes, with a total storage pool of 256TB! The 8D is also the first Drobo product with new Intelligent Volume Management, powered by a 1.6 GHz Quad Core Marvell ARM processor, and featuring an SSD accelerator bay, which basically handles the data management on all drives in order to accelerate performance for frequently accessed data.
Otherwise, the Dobro 8D chassis features it's own internal power supply (not depending on cheap and unreliable external AX adaptors like many external drives do), and uses dual fans for cooling efficiency. The two Thunderbolt 3 ports mean users can daisy-chain their complete system, connecting up to five Thunderbolt devices, supporting two 4K monitors or one 5K monitor, while the bi-directional performance of Thunderbolt 3 allows all devices in the chain to achieve maximum throughput.
As Dobro explains, the 8D was designed to offer lightning fast speed for data transfer - ideal for media content - with the largest capacity for a direct attached Drobo, and compatible with the latest 14TB HDDs now available on the market, with room to grow. The 8D intelligently combines both HDDs and SSDs in the front slots to deliver both capacity and performance, as well as Data Aware-Tiering to accelerate both read and write performance. The mentioned Drobo Accelerator Bay, found on the rear panel for SSD use, enables Hot Data Caching to deliver performance boosts for popular applications such as Apple’s Final Cut, Adobe Lightroom, and Photoshop.
This technology combines the flexibility of manual volume configuration with the convenience of Drobo’s automation, allowing for separation of file systems as needs dictate. “The 8D is the product that our customers have asked for and need,” says StorCentric CEO, Mihir Shah. "The self-management features save time and money and provide an affordable entry point for all end users and allows for a ‘pay as you grow’ model for expanding data needs.”
The Drobo 8D is available now at an MSRP of $1,299 USD through www.drobostore.com and select channel partners. For a limited time, the 8D includes a free SSD when purchased through the US Drobo Store.
www.drobo.com
