Any reader of my blog knows that I’m a sucker for small storage systems. I currently use would a four bay Data Robotics Drobo, but there are many other fine choices for those with different needs. I was talking to my friend Jerome Wendt about this, and we are collaborating on a buyer’s guide for small business storage systems.
Drobo
Posts about the line of Drobo storage devices
Feed Your Drobo: 1 TB WD Green SATA Drive, $55.49
It seems like my Drobo is always hungry. I’ve got all four slots stuffed with 1.5 TB drives right now, and the Western Digital Caviar Green is one of my favorites. It’s quiet and draws just a little power, yet is fairly quick thanks to 64 MB of cache. Now Amazon has it for $55.49, shipped!
Microsoft Stops Paying People To Use Bing Shopping
Rebates sell cars and electronics, so why not web search? That must have been Microsoft’s thought process when they implemented Live Search Cashback back in 2008. Under the program, Microsoft paid rebates to shoppers who purchased goods after using their shopping and price comparison search engine. Essentially, Microsoft was trying to buy their way into the hearts of web users. But Bing Cashback will end on July 30, 2010. Will web surfers still consider Bing?
Should Home Users Buy Enterprise Hard Disk Drives?
Are “enterprise” drives worth the extra cost in a RAID enclosure? The reason I ask is I’ve had 2 of 4 Seagate ‘consumer’ (7200.12) drives fail in my (Other World Qx2) enclosure. The two drives that failed were maybe a year old, well short of any ‘MBTF’ expectation. Enterprise drives cost nearly twice that of consumer drives.
Iomega Graduates and Goes to Work with the ix12-300r
EMC’s Iomega unit today released the rack-mount storage product we have all been waiting for. The new ix12-300r packs 12 drive bays, scaling from 4 TB all the way to 24 TB, and backs it with quad gigabit iSCSI, redundant power, and everything else the small data center needs.
