Today, Data Robotics released their new device, the Drobo Pro. Basically, its a large Drobo with 8 SATA Drive bays, 2 FireWire 800 Ports, a USB 2 port and GigE Network connection for iSCSI support.

Drobo Pro

 

The iSCSI piece is not for sharing between multiple machines, from what i can gather, but designed as a faster than the 800mb/s that firewire gives way of connecting to your Drobo.

The Drobo has always been an interesting idea, but i am still not 100% convinced… I have my Windows Home Server, which currently has a fair amount of storage on it, and can do a lot more than the Drobo can (can be connected to multiple machines, has support for backing them up, etc). I have even gotten it acting as a SVN server (part 1 and part 2). `

I can see an advantage to Drobo (all managed in one box, easy access to drives, etc). but 8 drives is still limiting… No USB upgrade, no PATA support… All stuff i have with my current (Home Built) Home Server…