Interop 2012 Las Vegas – a reunion in many ways

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This was Drobo’s first time participating in Interop. Having spent almost a decade in big networking prior to Drobo, I caught up with hundreds of friends and customers that I’d worked with in the past – not unlike a high-school reunion. The word “reunion” is the noun form of the verb “reunite,” a Middle English term from the Medieval Latin root “reunitus“: to bring together again. Just like a high school reunion, everyone commented on how I have a lot less hair than they remember (aren’t reunions great ;-) ).

We had a great time introducing some folks to Drobo. But believe it or not, most people who stopped by our stand did not need the introduction. Continue reading →

Hyper-V is like Prego, it’s in there

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With a very Italian name, you might wonder why I’m making reference to a bottled spaghetti sauce. I use it when it goes on sale, though I dramatically enhance it with two different meats, crimini mushrooms, and sweet onions, bolstered with stewed tomatoes and a can of paste, simmered with chili flakes and a kicker of sriracha sauce. Maybe if I used Prego it would already be “in there”, but the prep is still pretty easy,

The word “prego” is an Italian word that means “you are welcome.” Continue reading →

Who Needs Drobo + Microsoft?

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Picture of Tom BuiocchiIt’s actually pretty simple.  Just solve the following equation:

  • I want to run the world’s most popular applications +
  • I want to have them deployed and managed easily +
  • Reliable, highly available & protected by disk-based backup
  • But I have real budget constraints
  • And I don’t have a ton of IT resources

= Educational institutions, healthcare, and state and local government Continue reading →

Drobo and VMware vCloud, psychedelic in a great way

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What do storage tiering, Jimi Hendrix, and cloud computing have in common? You might think all of them can be psychedelic, “offering you creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly ordinary fetters.” Most practical IT people do not like these concepts at first because they are a different way of going about delivering IT infrastructure. The same can be said for Jimi Hendrix music for conservative folks, it is not until you have an open mind and think differently about the music that it strikes you as profound and brilliant.

Another thing that associates these three concepts is John Arrasjid, Principal Architect @ VMware. John was was recently on a Drobo webcast talking storage tiering in a vCloud architecture. John is one of many VMware experts that use Drobo storage in his labs, and is also a member The Elastic Sky Band @ VMware. If you attended VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas, you may remember the band setting a psychedelic mood with a rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing filled with great sax and guitar solos.  Continue reading →

A little goes a long way

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Thinking about the pizza video from my last post leads me to another video that makes me think of Drobo’s new support for SSDs. Neither SSDs nor tiering are new to the industry, they really aren’t, but Drobo provides them in very unique way. Drobo makes them available in the same system as high-capacity hard disk drives. Small companies do not need millions of IOPS and traditionally have had to sacrifice capacity, using many 15K RPM SAS drives, to get the performance they need. As the Total cereal video points out, choosing the right product can provide what you need in just one serving! Continue reading →

Both. Isn’t it what everyone wants?

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Tell me if this analogy works for you. Drobo just launched support for SSDs and our solution for Automated Data-Aware Tiering . Neither SSDs nor tiering are new to the industry, but the way Drobo provides them is very unique. And for SMB customers there is nothing like it, because the solution provides BOTH high capacity AND great performance you’d otherwise get only by sacrificing capacity with many 15K SAS drives. What has been stuck in my head for months now is an old pizza commercial about choices. Both – it’s what everyone wants. Continue reading →

We had a field day and it was great!

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Lots of folks use the expression, “having a field day” – mostly with positive connotations, like a day set aside for athletic competitions or a time of extraordinary pleasure or opportunity.  From my time in the Marine Corps, a field day meant housecleaning and inspections (definitely not fun). Today at Drobo, we indeed had an extraordinarily positive experience sponsoring a Gestalt IT Tech Field Day event, the 4th time Drobo has been a sponsor. Continue reading →

“No IT Required”

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Picture of Tom BuiocchiToday the Drobo B1200i got an “auto-magic” boost with SSDs and our innovative Automated Data-Aware Tiering functionality on our flagship Drobo B1200i, bringing easy performance acceleration and affordable use of SSDs to small and medium business customers for the first time. The new B1200i system, sporting 18TB of traditional hard disk storage and 600GB of solid state drive storage, meets the capacity, data protection, and accelerated performance needs of small businesses. All in an easy, automated, and affordable package for under $18,000.

  • “It’s the happy meal of storage,” cited one prominent analyst, an obvious foodie.
  • “No, it’s the bento box of storage,” cried another.  “It’s got some of everything.”
  • “Tastes great, less costly,” echoed a third. Continue reading →

Vote early, vote often for Drobo

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The short list for the Storage Awards is out on www.storage-awards.com/ and we’re proud to announce that Drobo has been shortlisted in five categories. If you love your Drobo, vote for us (click the Vote Now link at the top left) – we think we have a pretty good chance! The Drobo B1200i is without question the “One to watch,” “Value for Money,” the “Disk-based product of the year – SME,” and the “Flash/SSD product of the year.” And we are the company “One to watch.” Continue reading →

Reality is in the eye of the beholder

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Picture of Mario BlandiniTechnology has altered reality.  Sporting events can be more vivid and higher impact on a 60+in HD flat panel compared to seeing the event live. Technology discussions can be faster and more interactive over the web using a live demo with displays and webcams compared to sitting in a room with a whiteboard. Technology enables new ways of doing things that really are better – not necessarily avatars and CGI – but a more efficient version of what is real.

Some real and really good analysis was posted today from someone with a very keen eye on reality for storage customers. Matt Prigge posted to his Information Overload column @ InfoWorld.com on “How to avoid a forklift storage upgrade.”  Continue reading →