Drobo Storage Robot

Two Drobos & twelve 750gig drives

• Retail price: $499 for each Drobo not including drives
• Four Primary drives, four On-Site-Backup drives, four Off-Site-Backup drives
• 2.1 Terabytes (2,160 GB) of usable double redundant storage
• Drobo automatically combines up to four hard drives into one pool of protected storage
• Extremely easy to use:
  • Green lights mean your data is safe even if a drive fails.
  • Yellow means your data is safe, but you should add/replace a hard drive soon.
  • Red means your data isn’t safe; you must add a drive immediately
• Drobo can mix and match hard drives of different sizes

Suggested configuration: one Drobo on-site, one Drobo off-site; three sets of drives (primary, on-site backup, off-site backup) four drives each. Each set will have 1.8 terabytes (1,800GB)of usable space.

Apple Xserve RAID

It appears that Apple may be discontinuing the XserveRAID in favor of promoting Promise brand RAID enclosures. More information will be posted when it becomes available.

Apple Xserve RAID & Twenty One 750gig hard drives

• Call for price estimate including installation and setup
• 4.2 terabytes of ultra-secure triple-redundancy backup when used with the primary+on-site+off-site method
• Redundant power supplies w/ Cache battery backup
• Redundant RAID controllers
• Redundant Cooling System
• Warranty Service provided at Apple Stores
• Raid 5 with hot-spare compatible
• Fibre connection to G5 or MacPro
• Much faster than an internal drive and light-years faster than a firewire drive

Suggested configuration: Seven 750gig primary drives, seven 750gig on-site backup drives, seven 750gig off-site backup drives. Each set of drives should be placed in RAID5 for redundancy and increased read speed.

Xserve RAID Try-Before-You-Buy Program

If you don’t currently own a server or high-end storage solution (small raid systems are not considered in this grouping) then you should qualify for a 30-day evaluation program. An Xserve RAID system of your preferred configuration will be shipped to your doorstep for you to evaluate. During the 30-days you are free to use the unit as you wish to determine if it would be a good storage solution for your needs. By the end of your trial you may choose to purchase the unit or return it at no cost. As an added benefit the Try-Before-You-Buy Program includes a discounted price not available through any other means. So if you are seriously considering adding an Xserve RAID to your workflow this program is a great option.

More information on the XServeRAID and Drobo