Drobo has released a pair of updates today; first Drobo has qualified the OCZ Talos SAS SSD for tiering use in their B1200i iSCSI SAN solution, second Drobo has announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to let Drobo users back up their data to the cloud. The OCZ deal marks the first time Drobo has worked directly with an SSD vendor to offer a tiering solution within their SAN storage solutions.
Drobo has released a pair of updates today; first Drobo has qualified the OCZ Talos SAS SSD for tiering use in their B1200i iSCSI SAN solution, second Drobo has announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to let Drobo users back up their data to the cloud. The OCZ deal marks the first time Drobo has worked directly with an SSD vendor to offer a tiering solution within their SAN storage solutions.
OCZ Talos SAS SSDs for Tiering
Drobo has qualified the OCZ Talos SAS SSD for integration with their B1200i SAN. The 12-bay B1200i will support up to three 200GB 6 Gb/s SAS Talos SSDs that have been customized specifically for use in Drobo systems. The 3.5" Talos SSDs can be dropped straight into the Drobo unit, which will intelligently and automatically deploy their capacity in a tiered configuration. While Drobo has always supported pretty much any drive of any kind dropped into its bays, the Talos support comes with an upcoming firmware release that gives users an easy to use tiering solution for increased performance. Users can drop in from one to three Talos SSDs and the Drobo unit will respond accordingly, with no user intervention.
Drobo will offer the B1200i through their distributor network in a variety of disk combinations, highlighted by a three Talos, nine hard drive configuration. For those who already have a B1200i deployed, Drobo will also offer Talos SSD packages to help get users who want SSD tiering up to speed quickly. While the OCZ partnership is not exclusive, it does highlight the benefit of SSD tiering in SAN solutions.
The 9x2TB HDD and 3x 200GB Talos SAS SSD Drobo B1200i SAN solution will carry an MSRP of under $18,000, compared to $15,000 for a model equipped with 12x2TB HDDs, giving the SSD tiering configuration roughly a $3,000 premium. The Talos-based solution will be available in late April.
Amazon S3 Backup
Drobo also announced a partnership with Amazon to provide Drobo users with an easy to use data backup solution. Drobo B800i and B1200i can now store data locally while using Amazon’s S3 cloud to store point-in-time snapshots. SMBs who depend on Drobo units to provide redundant access to their data now have a new way to ensure continued access in the event of disaster.
Drobo intends to offer cloud backup solutions to all of their products, giving all Drobo users the option to securely back up their data offiste. The AWS storage gateway pricing is $125.00 per activated gateway, per month, plus storage costs.
