Connected Data launched on Wednesday a new addition to its Drobo line of storage products, the Drobo Mini with SSD. This storage solution is slated as the first portable, rugged, and expandable solid-state disk (SSD) product, packing four 2.5-inch SSD drives providing up to 4 TB total capacity. Without the drives, the Drobo Mini costs $449.
The tech specs show that the base Drobo Mini provides four drive bays supporting 2.5-inch hard drives or SSDs. There is also optional mSATA connectivity that improves SSD performance up to 10 percent. The Drobo Mini even provides two Thunderbolt ports and one USB 3.0 port for fast transfers to a compatible desktop or laptop and full power fail protection with a battery backup.
“Like all Drobo products, Drobo Mini protects data without user intervention, even in the event of multiple SSD drive failures,” the press release states. “If a drive does fail, Drobo Mini automatically repairs itself and returns to a protected state while providing full access to data without performance being affected. Additional security is provided with battery backup that protects against data loss in the event of a sudden power outage ensuring that all data in flight is protected until power is restored.”
Thanks to Connected Data’s BeyondRAID technology, users can actually mix and match drives, meaning you can plug both HDDs and SSDs into the same storage array without having to worry about all four being the same type of storage, or from the same storage vendor. BeyondRAID features include instant capacity expansion up to 6 TB, mixed drive size utilization, single- or dual-disk redundancy, thin provisioning and reclamation, a virtual hot spare, and drive re-ordering.
“A Drobo Mini configured with SSD drives allows users to cost effectively balance performance and capacity. Owners can start with the capacity a project needs today, and add capacity as required, without disruption and without breaking the bank. This allows customers to take advantage of larger SSDs and lower prices in the future,” said Joe Disher, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Connected Data.
The Drobo Mini with SSD is available now in three capacity bundles of 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB, with a starting price of $1,199. For more information about the Drobo Mini, head here.
