Drobo File Sharing Storage for Business

Drobo delivers "big storage in a small box" to create the best storage experience ever for small and medium sized businesses and departments at larger enterprises. Built on proven and award-winning BeyondRAID technology, the Drobo model B800fs allows the sharing of files with all computers on the network and keep that vital business data protected with offsite replication.

Drobo model B800fs connects seamlessly to your existing Ethernet network and supports both Windows and Mac computers.Drobo Apps give you the freedom to customize your Drobo to meet your own unique set of requirements.

Drobo Storage for Business Family Comparison

BeyondRAID Technology

A Drobo model B800fs can hold up to 16 TB of raw storage and beyond. To add capacity, simply insert a new hard drive or replace your smallest drive with a larger one, even when all drive bays are full. Unlike traditional RAID systems, the BeyondRAID technology in Drobo enables you to leverage different drive capacities, allowing for continuous expansion as larger drives become available. With Drobo, expansion is automatic, instantaneous, and access to data is always maintained.

Drobo can protect from single or dual drive failures and has a virtual hot spare capability - ensuring all drives are used as all times.

Share Files Directly from Drobo

Drobo model B800fs connects directly to your Ethernet network to make sharing your data easy. Just plug it into any switch and you are ready to go.

The Drobo model B800fs has two Gigabit Ethernet ports that can be configured to fail over if one link fails, or can be set up to connect to two separate networks - one for your data and the other for Drobo Sync replication, for example.

Connect to Drobo, and access shared data, using any Windows, Mac, or UNIX/Linux1 computer. Drobo natively supports CIFS/SMB and AFP network protocols and NFS can be added by installing a Drobo App.

Offsite Data Protection

The Drobo model B800fs includes an intelligent and easy-to-use data replication tool that can seamlessly backup your valuable data from one Drobo to another somewhere on your network or across the Internet to a remote site. Having your data protected offsite guards you from a major disaster, resulting in peace of mind.

Figure 1  shows

Drobo model B800fs attached to the network, sharing files with workstations and laptops. Drobo Sync is replicating all of the data stored on the Drobo to one at a remote office for offsite backup.

Seamless Integration with Apple Time Machine

With support for any backup application that can store data on a network share, file sharingDrobos deliver the most seamless support for Apple Time Machine of any network storage system on the market today. Using Time Machine with Drobo is as easy as clicking one box in the Drobo Dashboard software, with no need for confusing and complex configuration.

Drobo Care Service and Support Program

The Drobo Care service and support program extends your peace of mind beyond the standard warranty terms for 3 years and beyond. With DroboCare, we’re always here to answer your call and if something goes wrong, we’ll send you a replacement Drobo right away.

Features

Design All Drobos have carrier-less drive insertion. This means there are no special parts or screws that have to be added to the drives before they are inserted. It’s like inserting a cassette tape into a video recorder.

Drobo model B800fs is designed to be rack mounted, but it is also compact and quiet, making it ideal for workgroup environments that need storage located in an office or on a desk.

Even the faceplate is magnetic, with the manual is on the back. Primary management is by using status lights and visual capacity gauge.

And, all Drobos look good too!

What's BeyondRAID? Storage without limitations

Most modern storage arrays aggregate disks and prevent against single drive failures using a 20-year-old technology called RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). While RAID has served many businesses well, it requires up-front knowledge of its functionality and has many shortcomings. BeyondRAID technology built into every Drobo addresses these shortcomings and makes virtualizing disk drives usable by everyone. BeyondRAID provides these enhancements over traditional RAID:

• Thin Provisioning as a fundamental capability allows for infinite capacity expansion by just replacing a drive with a larger one
• Instant Expansion occurs when a new, or larger, drive is inserted without any disruption in service
• Mixed Drive Utilization allows you to insert any drive, of any size, or any type, and Drobo will optimally use it - check out our interactive Capacity Calculator
• Automatic Protection Levels ensures the best algorithm is used to protect from drive failure depending on the number of drives that are inserted without any user configuration
• Dual Disk Redundancy enhances BeyondRAID protection by guarding from multiple drive failures
• Virtual Hot Spare utilizes all drives at all time - no drives sitting idle waiting for one to fail
• Drobos are Data Aware, intelligently handling data for added resiliency, performance, and management
• Drive Re-ordering allows Drobo disk packs to be moved to another Drobo, and even re-ordered, while still functioning - try that with RAID

BeyondRAID technology, built into every Drobo, delivers all of the benefits of traditional RAID, while providing much more and leaving many of the limitations behind. This next-generation of redundant storage technology brings together enhanced protection, reliability, expandability, and ease-of-use.

Drobos, based on BeyondRAID, interact with computing systems in the same manner as storage arrays using traditional RAID, so installing a Drobo allows you to maintain your current operating system and file system. This eliminates the challenges and costs when moving to a new storage technology.

Problems with Traditional RAID

 RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) was developed in the 1980s to pool disk drives for increased capacity and reliability for data storage. Since then, RAID has been a huge success, preventing single disk drive failures from causing data loss, and has been used in almost every enterprise data center.

Unfortunately, the complexity of RAID has made it challenging for small businesses and consumers to effectively use the technology. RAID has a high learning curve with many options. There's RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60 along with unfamiliar terminology like striping, mirroring, and parity.

Moving Beyond RAID

Drobo's BeyondRAID technology solves these fundamental issues with traditional RAID while delivering much more. Built on an advanced virtualization platform, BeyondRAID chooses the correct protection algorithm based on data availability needs at any given moment.Since the technology works at the block level, it can write blocks of data that alternate between data protection approaches.

If you need to add storage capacity to a Drobo, simply insert additional disk drives or replace the smallest disks with larger ones - no need to change RAID levels, purchase a new storage array or go through the complex administration of pooling RAID groups. The BeyondRAID feature even allows IT managers to switch from single to dual disk redundancy with a single click, thereby ensuring enterprise-level dual parity data protection if required. If a drive happens to fail, Drobo will automatically re-layout the data to return to a protected state without any user interaction.

BeyondRAID vs. Traditional RAID

Drobo Sync

Drobo Sync is the intelligent and easy-to-use replication tool built into the Drobo model B800fs. It is designed to provide offsite protection to all data hosted on a Drobo, guarding against major disasters like fire, flood, and theft.

Drobo Sync management is integrated into Drobo Dashboard and is configured with just a few clicks. From there on out, data replication is fully automated. After the first replication job is complete, only new files or changed parts of existing files are transferred, making it efficient for moving data over the Internet to a remote location.

Drobo Apps

All File Sharing Drobos support the installation of Drobo Apps - applications that enhance the functionality of your Drobo on your network. Drobo Apps are community created and run on the Linux-based operating system embedded in Drobo.

Drobo Apps range from media servers to web server to network utilities. What you can do with Drobo Apps is endless.

Drobo Dashboard Management

Drobo Dashboard is the single tool to centrally manage  all of your Drobos. Drobo Dashboard gives you status as if all of your Drobos were right in front of you by providing you the same status lights and capacity guage that are on the front panel. All adminitration tasks are a single click away and there’s even a built-in data protection tool called Drobo Copy to easily copy data to and from your Drobo. Simply, it’s the easiest way to configure and manage business-class storage.

Main View

When Drobo Dashboard is launched, it shows all Drobos connected to your computer and scans the network for file sharing and iSCSI Drobos. The front panel of a Drobo is the primary user interface and Drobo Dashboard lets you see in the front panel all your Drobos from a remote location.

Capacity and Tools

An easy-to-read, but detailed, capacity chart is available, with a pull-down menu to access common Drobo tools like naming the device, updating firmware, and shutting down.

A view is also a click away to see exactly how the raw disk capacity is being used and how much space is available for use.

Status

Detailed status can be obtained about the Drobo and the drives contained in it. Since Drobo supports mixed drive types and sizes, it helps to know which drives are in which bays. When Drobo is running low on space, simply remove the smallest drive and replace it with a larger one.

Management Options to Fit Your Needs

Management options like email notification and SNMP are easily configured right in Drobo Dashboard. This provides IT administrators with the tools necessary to monitor Drobos without any day-to-day effort.

Drobo B800fs 8TB NAS - 4x Seagate Constellation ES.2 2TB