Filed under: Storage, Networking

The number one complaint about the Drobo is pretty obvious: getting the damn thing on your network without using a host computer. Well, consider that complaint sorted. Today input Robotics is releasing a NAS upgrade for Drobo called the DroboShare, which will support:

• Gigabit Ethernet (yes!), static or dynamic IPs
• Auto-mounting SMB shares via Drobo Dashboard (supports SMB authentication)
• Dual USB 2.0 ports for two Drobos per DroboShare
• EXT3 file system support (officially!)
• Capacities up to 16TB per Drobo (provided you feed it 4TB drives that won’t be out until, say, 2010)
• And possibly our favorite: mail alerts, should a drive happen to crash, for example

It’s additionally worth noting that Drobo is still capable

of switching amidst NAS and direct-attached modes whether you decide you want to take your Drobo OFF the network (but why would you do a thing like that?). The biggest problem with that add-on? It’s $200, which brings the total cost of a DroboShare NAS rig to $700 — without drives. Still, we have a feeling for many a Drobo user — ourselves included — the value of the functionality will far outweigh the borderline unreasonable price tag.

 

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Orginal post by Ryan Block