Drobo Version 2 - Still a Let Down
When I first laid eyes on an original Drobo (www.drobo.com) I was really impressed with the technology and how this device could easily handle hard drive failures. What bothered me then and still bothers me now are 2 main items.
First is the price tag. Starting at $500 for a device with NO hard drives is pretty steep for most home users. Although this point could be forgiven if the device had everything else in place.
The second thing is the network share. Drobo V.1 and now V.2 both require you to buy the $200 add-on of DroboShare to put this thing on your network. At least the new DroboShare is Gigabit ethernet.
For $700 to start, plus the cost of hard drives you will be closing in the $1000 price tag pretty quickly. They do offer a prebuilt 1TB setup for $900 - OUCH!!!
With the general computer user starting to really figure out the need for a good backup and the cost of hard drives dropping dramatically, I think this market is going to really get hot. Western Digital already has a 2 GB backup device that is a mirrored solution of 2 hard drives. Okay it is 1TB of data if you use mirroring, but this device is only $550 pre-canned. You can get 1TB external drives from Western Digital for around $200 that are USB (which is how I currently backup my laptop and desktop PC)
Let's not forget the TeraStations I have purchased for clients made by Buffalo Technology. They have a complete line of network storage devices. They even have a LinkStation Mini device that is 1TB in size and has a network jack built in for around the $500-550 price tag.
Even further are the online data backup solutions. These companies will do an online backup to an offsite location which is really appealing. (Think house/office fire) But they also can be scheduled to backup at night or when the system isn't in use. Companies like Carbonite offer a full year of unlimited backup capacity for $50 per year. ( www.carbonite.com )
Others that offer the service are Mozy ( www.mozy.com ) which has plans starting at $5 per month. Mac users can use iDrive and I'm sure there are others.
With all that downward pressure on the price I wonder why Drobo can't put out a simple device with the networking options??? I think I would pay a little more for the technology of hot swapping drives in a Drobo over the Buffalo TeraStation but right now they are charging a big premium for that option.
First is the price tag. Starting at $500 for a device with NO hard drives is pretty steep for most home users. Although this point could be forgiven if the device had everything else in place.
The second thing is the network share. Drobo V.1 and now V.2 both require you to buy the $200 add-on of DroboShare to put this thing on your network. At least the new DroboShare is Gigabit ethernet.
For $700 to start, plus the cost of hard drives you will be closing in the $1000 price tag pretty quickly. They do offer a prebuilt 1TB setup for $900 - OUCH!!!
With the general computer user starting to really figure out the need for a good backup and the cost of hard drives dropping dramatically, I think this market is going to really get hot. Western Digital already has a 2 GB backup device that is a mirrored solution of 2 hard drives. Okay it is 1TB of data if you use mirroring, but this device is only $550 pre-canned. You can get 1TB external drives from Western Digital for around $200 that are USB (which is how I currently backup my laptop and desktop PC)
Let's not forget the TeraStations I have purchased for clients made by Buffalo Technology. They have a complete line of network storage devices. They even have a LinkStation Mini device that is 1TB in size and has a network jack built in for around the $500-550 price tag.
Even further are the online data backup solutions. These companies will do an online backup to an offsite location which is really appealing. (Think house/office fire) But they also can be scheduled to backup at night or when the system isn't in use. Companies like Carbonite offer a full year of unlimited backup capacity for $50 per year. ( www.carbonite.com )
Others that offer the service are Mozy ( www.mozy.com ) which has plans starting at $5 per month. Mac users can use iDrive and I'm sure there are others.
With all that downward pressure on the price I wonder why Drobo can't put out a simple device with the networking options??? I think I would pay a little more for the technology of hot swapping drives in a Drobo over the Buffalo TeraStation but right now they are charging a big premium for that option.
posted by UtahOSB @ 2:55 PM
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