Drobo has refreshed its 12-bay storage drive aimed at businesses by incorporating SSDs into the system. The B1200i now uses a small number of SSDs alongside normal hard disks and Drobo’s automatic data-tiering software, boosting performance by up to a claimed 300 percent compared to its previous incarnation.
The unit is aimed as primary storage for up to 250 users or as Tier 2 storage and backup for entire departments in larger organizations, and has already attained the status of being VMware Ready with vSphere 5.0 certification. Citrix and Exchange usability has also been confirmed by the company, as well as support for Cloud backup with Amazon Web Services and others.
Existing B1200i owners can download a software update at no charge, adding the new performance and functionality improvements, while prospective users will need $12,000 (if they pay list price).
