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Low-Cost, Reliable, and Abundant Storage Spaces

I’m always running into situations- seriously, like weekly, where clients need to find some place to put their files. And it’s not just video people that have this issue, although it’s easy to see why they need more room to put their stuff, it’s businesses of all kinds, storing all kinds of different types of data. Anyone storing any data always has one major concern: they don’t want to lose any of it.

Ideally, we’d like to see all businesses have a well-thought out and implemented data protection system, but the reality is that things sometimes get in the way of getting that done. Things like not having a lot of money for a tape library system.

I’m not going to go into off-site data backup and storage, archiving, and all that. It’s beyond the scope of this article. What I will go into, though, is some of the relatively new class of low-cost RAID products that we’re seeing, selling, and installing for our clients.

While some people have a problem with external drives and reliability, the RAID 5 capability takes drive failure out of the equation. This article will highlight four of the most commonly used devices in this class.

Typical Uses for Low Cost RAID

Let’s start with one area that’s NOT a typical use for low-cost RAID, and that’s HD video editing. Even with an eSATA connection, it’s just not a recipe for success. Let’s leave it at that. For HD Video editing, we need to look at some more capable units, such as the Promise VTrak enclosures, CalDigit HDPro/HDOne, Active RAID, Lacie 12Big, etc. If that’s a problem for you, it’s a problem I’d love to discuss with you “offline”.

But one very important use for these low-cost RAID’s is storage of video files and projects after the piece has been delivered. Video editors need a digital dumping ground to put all this stuff. It doesn’t have to be online, but it does have to be somewhere relatively safe so that the data can be reloaded on the edit workstation in the event something has to be changed.

Gotta put all those clips somewhere.

With the acceptance of Digital Asset Management applications, the accumulation of digital images, documents, and related files creates a need for a relatively fast, reliable, and fault-tolerant place to put things. Photographers and Graphic Artists need something that they can easily attach to their workstations, ideally through Firewire 400/800, USB2, or possibly eSATA, and most new systems have these kinds of interfaces built in.

Small businesses are installing more servers, especially with the price point dropping on those as evidenced by the new Mac Mini Server which can handle a small business for a $1000. These servers need somewhere to store all those files that are going to be shared out, as well as application data for other services. These low-cost RAID’s do a good job at storing the data for a workgroup economically while providing relatively good speed.

Four of the most common low-cost RAID’s

All of these are easy to connect, easy to run, and have RAID 5 reliability built in. They’re also all available from us at Iris.

LaCie 4Big

If you’re looking for an easy out-of-box experience at a low price, then the Lacie 4Big is a good place to start. From a user’s perspective, it’s just like the external drives you’re used to using, just bigger and more reliable. A 4TB unit costs less than $800 complete with drives installed for you, and it comes with Firewire 400, 800, USB2, and eSATA cables. This combination of  interfaces is often referred to as “quad”, and you’ll see it in most of the systems available now.

If you’ve got a slot available in your tower or server, then you may want to consider adding an eSATA card to your machine and connect that way. The performance is better than Firewire, although not as fast as FibreChannel or some of the proprietary connections used on higher-end RAID enclosures.

Drobo S

Data Robotics had a hit on their hands when they came out with the original “drobo”, a sexy black box that could hold up to 4 drives, had really neat management software that you could use to configure and monitor the system, and basically brought a “raid-like” experience to the desktop of consumers, prosumers, and artists.Photographers in particular were drawn to these things. The performance wasn’t all that great, and the connections weren’t either, but it was a cool first start.

Since then, they’ve upgraded the drobo with capacity for 5 drives, upgraded the connections to include eSATA and FireWire 800, and kept the flexibility and management tools from the original drobo. They still aren’t the fastest option, but they do allow you to pick and choose the capacity of drives you use with them as they take standard 3.5” SATA drives. You could start off with 5 1TB Drives now, then pick up 2+TB SATA drives in the future when they become cheaper than dirt.

Wiebetech RTX400QR

I’ll admit that I really like Wiebetech stuff. It works well, and their customer support has really been great. They don’t have the best marketing department though – the name of this unit doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But the RTX Family gets a lot of use at Iris, and the 4 drive quad interface RAID enclosure has been very popular. Like the drobo, you can choose the drives you put into it, doesn’t require trays, and it has the FW400/800, USB2, and eSATA connections to make it easy to hook up. It looks and feels a bit more industrial than the Lacie or the drobo, but it does have one very useful feature that the others don’t: a handle built in the case. It sounds silly, but this is one of the best features of the unit, especially for mobile pros. Performance is good, and again you can upgrade in the future simply by installing bigger disks.

For doing disk-to-disk backups, we sell the Wiebetech RTX100 and RTX200 enclosures along with carrying cases for the drives. A very neat, durable, and reliable backup system for your office.

Promise SmartStorDS4600

In terms of performance, this is probably the best overall value in low-cost RAID’s out there. It doesn’t hurt that it looks good, either.

Like the drobo and the Wiebetech, this model uses off-the-shelf 3.5” SATA drives and has the usual compliment of connectors to attach to your system. In our own testing, we’ve found that the SmartStor is faster than the other three systems, priced well, and probably our number one recommendation for offices that are implementing Mac Mini Servers. It comes from Promise, which is the same company that makes the VTrak enclosures for XSAN systems.

This is hardly an exhaustive list

And new stuff comes out all the time. However, these are 4 units that we commonly install, and it’s still amazing how much storage and reliability you can buy for under a grand. Having said that, if you have questions about what kind of storage you should be looking at, the best thing to do is give our engineers a call and have them work up a recommendation for you. Different businesses need different things, and it’s no different when it comes to storage. But for a lot of you, it’s clear that one of these four products would find a good home in your office.