Hi everyone, we’re very excited to be showing you our upcoming new products. I’m pretty sure that you’re going to love them because they’re exactly what you’ve been asking for. Check out the press release that went out today and read Erik’s blog.
Your emails, blogs, tweets, and phone calls could not have been clearer. Faster. Even more protection for my data. Smaller. Don’t lose the ease-of-use. And did I mention faster?
Check ‘em out – our guys here are very proud – we’re doing some things that are quite unique and unprecedented, and it adds up to some terrific new products – and did I mention faster?
Tom Buiocchi
Tom Buiocchi is CEO of Drobo. He joined Drobo after serving as an Executive in Residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures. Prior to Mohr Davidow, Buiocchi held executive-level roles at Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. where he was instrumental in sales and marketing strategies that resulted in significant market share gains and revenue growth from 2003 to 2008. Prior to Brocade, Tom spent more than 20 years in a range of marketing and strategy management positions for leading technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Apex Systems, and Rhapsody.
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http://blog.drobo.com
Why do you sell so many different Drobos? You should sell one desktop model, one rack mounted model, and now one portable model. Having the Drobo, Drobo S, Drobo FS and Drobo 5D is stupid. Just add the file sharing capability to the 5D and drop the rest of the line.
Hi Bill, well, you and Tom Buiocchi, our CEO, would agree on that. Although I can’t comment on product roadmap, I think as we move forward you’ll see us moving in this direction. Best regards, Victoria Thomas, admin
The model looks great but I cannot find anywhere on the net what the read write speed is in a raid 5 setting with all bays full. I might even throw an ssd in to if it helps make it run faster for 4k video editing through thunderbolt with either avid, resolve, or redcine. I own a Red Scarlet and want to put your product through some serious production tests, please someone email me information merlenfx at yahoo dot com. thank you!
Tom Buiocchi: Im truly excited about the possibility of a Drobo that will work at transfer speeds that word be considered expectable. Im an owner of the original Drobo and now the Drobo FS and the speed of transfer is down right painful but I tell myself to except it because its reliable back-up. Your products have always worked, and now I hope this new generation of Drobo actually has some speed to it.
The new Drobo 5D looks great. Just wondering when we will see the Drobo 5D in Europe.
We would like to test a unit for speed and transfer rates for SSD’s. HD’s
Also what are the maximum TB configurations available. For our company (40FT PRODUCTIONS) It would be great to have performance figures (read / write and transfer speeds) across a wide range of industry drives and sizes in particular how the unit performs when configured with say 5 x 3/4TB 6Gb/s Enterprise Hard Drives.
Hi Ray, I don’t have availability dates I can share right now. We will have benchmarks, however, and if you go to this page and sign up, we will notify you when we publish benchmarks or have other news to share: http://www.drobo.com/solutions/more/thunderbolt.php
Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Thanks Victoria ! I’ve signed up and am hoping the benchmark numbers are positive, we have an upcoming film shoot and the Drobo 5D and Mini may be exactly what we need for a field and editing solution. In real world post situations I thing the Drobo 5D will be configured with 3/4TB 6Gb/s Enterprise Hard Drives for maximum flexibility. I can see the The Mini being configured with OWC 480 or Vertex SSD’s for field use and maximum offload speeds. We cant wait to test them with the new BlackMagic Camera should be a great combination.
Regards
Ray
Hi, it’s funny that you mention BlackMagic Camera. A photograph on their website was in inspiration for our new home page image. We wanted to show the Drobo Mini near something (the hand) that would show it’s relative size, but I also wanted it to work with the other home page images. I was browsing on the BlackMagic site and saw an image of a product against a natural background and was sure we could show our Drobo Mini in a similar way! Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Hi Victoria !
Just a suggestion Re the Drobo Mini: I understand it’s not bus powered but has some battery back-up ability in case of a power failure.
Here at 40FT PRODUCTIONS we are looking at using the Drobo Mini as a back-up device for location shoots.
Sometimes this involves shooting in locations where there is no power supply and we rely on our MacBook Pro’s and spare batteries to offload our footage.
How about looking at a battery adaptor that can be used with the Drobo Mini for field offload, something like the Hyperjuice External Battery for the MacBook Pro (or a similar type device if possible)
http://www.hypershop.com/HyperJuice-External-Battery-for-MacBook-iPad-iPhone-USB-s/91.htm
Many people will be in the same position re the Drobo Mini, and will be looking at using it with the Blackmagic Camera for field offload and back-up.
Just a suggestion maybe you could pass it on.
Looking forward to the release of both the 5D and Mini and testing them out here at
40FT PRODUCTIONS.
Regards, Ray
Hi Ray, very happy to get the suggestion and have passed it along to Erik Pounds, Director of Product Management. The CEO, Tom Buiocchi, just passed by and thinks this is a great idea so you have a leg up there! If I have anything to pass along on this topic, I’ll do so. Best, Victoria
Hi Victoria !
I’m glad that Tom liked the idea, just two final suggestions if Drobo does provide a battery option for the Mini.
If possible how about adding a Thunderbolt and USB 3 (bus powered) offload reader for 2.5″ and 1.8″ Hard Drives and SD/CF cards.
If the reader attached to the Mini via Thunderbolt or USB 3 then 2.5″ / 1.8″ Hard Drives and SD/CF cards could be offloaded directly to the Drobo Mini via a copy button on the unit . When complete a light could verify offload is complete.
This would turn the Drobo Mini into one of the first stand alone Raid back-up systems for both Hard Drives and SD/CF cards.
The potential market for video and photography could be huge.
Plus you have added Raid protection for your data combined with a stand alone unit that can be used without a laptop in remote locations.
Add a custom caddy and case for the battery and reader and you have a complete standalone backup system.
Once again I’m not sure if this can be done but maybe you could pass it on to Tom and Erik.
If you do produce something like this we here at 40FT PRODUCTIONS would be more than happy to test it for you.
Good luck with the launch.
Regards
Ray
Hi Ray, consider your added suggestions passed along! Best, Victoria
Just received an e-mail from Adorama with a link showing the Drobo Mini at $999.99 price point. Is that the set msrp Victoria?
Hi Steve, doesn’t sound right. Checking …. Victoria Thomas, admin
Hi, nope – not right. Thanks for the heads up – the web team at Adorama is fixing this on the site even as I write this message. Best, Victoria
I really wish someone at Drobo would take 5 2TB drives, stick them in and tell us the performance test results. I don’t want to buy this thing and find out it has the performance of previous Drobos. I need SPEED!
Hi, passing along your comment to Erik in Prod Mgmt. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Yup, speed test results would be most welcome. Probably the only spec 90% of us are interested in. Thanks.
I am a real supporter of Drobo, love the concept, committed many £££’s and the execution has only ever been perfect for me… however, I now need a fast array (Thunderbolt) and the complete lack of information (actually, both blogs are actively avoiding the question) leads me to believe that there are obvious issues with the new Drobo’s – otherwise the many requests for a benchmark would have been satisfied. Please come clean (I don’t have a problem with issues, if you are working on them), otherwise I (and others) will go elsewhere. A Drobo supporter.
Hi Michael, I’ve passed along your comment to Tom B., CEO. Thank you for being a supporter of Drobo even in spite of how you feel at the moment. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
I want to second, or third, or fourth, what Michael Cauter has said. I have had a pre-order in at Amazon since the 5D was first available for pre-order. I am about to cancel it. the total stonewalling of the company to every request by everyone for some sort of speed data for several months now, leaves me with a very big concern about this product, and the company’s willingness to honestly and openly address issues.
Hi Paul, just published Tom B’s blog post with product release update. If you want to discuss further, feel free to email me your phone # (vthomas@drobo.com) and I’ll give you a call. Best, Victoria
FINALLY! A review!
http://reviews.cnet.com/external-drive-bays/drobo-mini/4505-3033_7-35544730-2.html