Pictures and videos are getting larger and people are creating more and more of them. As the size and number of photos — moving or still — grows, the need for fast, protected storage does as well.

Drobo 8D — big, fast, protected storage available today

While size certainly matters when it comes to holding the terabytes of photos and videos that seem to increase all on their own, it’s critical to have all of those memories or work product for that matter, stored in a way that when (not if) a hard drive fails the data is protected and available. That’s what Drobos have always done. They are protected storage that keeps data safe and available when a drive fails and is replaced in the unit.

As the need for more and more space on a single volume increases, Drobo has added to its product line. Today the StorCentric company is releasing the Drobo 8D a desktop attached storage (DAS) behemoth that offers a single volume of 128 terabytes and, with Thunderbolt™ 3 blazing fast read/write speeds.

8D overview

Photofocus publisher Rich Harrington sat down with StorCentric V.P. of Engineering Rod Harrison at a private briefing in New York City.

Drobo style

The Drobo 8D shares the same look and physical characteristics as the other three 8-bay devices in the line — the B810n (network attached storage or NAS), the B810i (iSCSI device) and the iSCSI highly popular DroboPro. The black metal case and dark drive cover with drive and capacity indicators carry the Drobo logo and nothing else.

3/4 view of the new Drobo 8D.

Features

  • 8 bays for hard drives
  • Two Thunderbolt™ 3ports
  • 128 TB volume support
  • First Drobo with NEW Intelligent Volume Management
  • Supports two 4K monitors or one 5K monitor
  • First 8-bay with Rear Slot Accelerator Bay for 2.5″ SSD
  • Dual fans for cooling efficiency
  • Internal power supply

The flip side

The back of the Drobo 8D shows two powerful but practically silent fans to keep the drives and the internal processor cool running. The power supply is integrated into the case. A 2.5″ SSD slot sits between the two fans. An SSD inserted in the slot serves as a high-speed cache to make file access remarkably fast. Dual Thunderbolt™ 3 ports support up to two 4K or one 5K monitor downstream from the 8D. Finally in the lower right corner is the power button.

On the flip side of the Drobo 8D.

Free SSD 2.5″ drive with purchase (limited time)

The Drobo 8D is available now from the Drobo Store. Units purchased through 11/27/2018 will receive a free 250GB SSD for the accelerator bay. The suggested MSRP is $1,299.00.