Apple World Today readers are no strangers to Drobo’s products and its BeyondRAID technology. The original Drobo device had four drive bays and a FireWire connector, while newer models have grown in both capacity and the speed of connectivity. Today the company acknowledged the fast and compact USB-C interface by announcing a new product — the Drobo 5C ($349).
The Drobo 5C has five bays into which any combination of hard disk or solid state drives can be placed without the need for carriers or screws. Users often start off with two or three drives of relatively small size, then add more and larger drives as their storage needs grow. Drobo devices can be set up for either single or dual drive redundancy, meaning that one or two drives can fail simultaneously without loss of data. Drives are easily hot-swappable.
USB-C is backward compatible with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, and the new interface is featured on Apple’s 12-inch Retina display MacBook. USB-C is expected to be the interface used for future Macs as it can be compatible with older USB devices, faster USB-C devices, and the upcoming Thunderbolt 3 protocol.
Drobo notes that since the introduction of the original Drobo 4-Bay nine years ago, the read/write performance of its devices has increased 10 times, storage capacity has increased 32 times, and list price has decreased 33%. As noted above, the list price of the new unit is only $349, an attractive price point for anyone who needs large and expandable redundant storage.
Anyone who currently owns a second or third-generation Drobo 4 Bay can receive a $50 discount when they purchase a Drobo 5C through www.drobostore.com. That discount is valid only through October 11, 2016 — contact partners@drobo.com for more information about the special discount.
Apple World Today will have a full review of the Drobo 5C soon.
