Faster Robots

My favorite data storage company has just announced some new products for photographers in a hurry.


Drobo have introduced the Thunderbolt Drobo Mini with 2 1/2 inch disk drives and provision to use solid state storage as well - all linked with auto tiering and capable of being daisy chained for multiple storage units. The new news is that this can be done through the Thunderbolt and the USB 3.0 systems so that the data transfer is really lightning fast.

Sometimes I stop to consider this speed thing. In my later film days I considered it pretty fast when I could process the negs from a shoot one night, bang out proof sheets the next night, and show them the third. Then orders printed in a week and who could want more...

Actually I remember rolls of film dropped into the chemist one week and back in a fortnight. But that was when chemists sold medicine instead of jewellery and chocolate bars. Let us continue.

Drobo also have a new bigger machine using the 3 1/2 inch drives that also will be Thunderbolted and USB 3.0'd and will be capable of coping with SSD's.

I use the regular Drobo - I haven't filled it up yet, but the reassurance that it gives me each time that I switch the system on and it tells me that all is well is priceless. It frees up my main computer so that I can make silly mistakes on the desktop and it will faithfully store and show me those follies for ever more. It is like having a built-in brother-in-law but without having to provide beer.