How about all of that Drobo power in an itty-bitty form factor? The sporty and compact Drobo Mini has all the power of the Drobo 5D, but the footprint of the unit isn't much bigger than a deli sandwich. Made of a cutting-edge metallic carbon fiber with a soft-touch rubberized finish, the unit feels like it's ready to be field-tested right out of the box. And because it uses 2.5" drives, primarily found in laptop computers, the unit is made to moved, from the studio to the worksite to the client's office.

You can fit up to up to four (4) 2.5" SATA I / II / III hard disk drives of any manufacturer, capacity, spindle speed, and/or cache, or solid state drives that are between 7mm and 9mm in height (sold separately) and one (1) mSATA solid state drive in the Drobo Accelerator Bay for increased performance.

We've talked about Thunderbolt before - it's 25 x faster than USB 2.0 - and its data transfer rates almost approach warp speed, but more importantly, it reliably and safely transfers big-project data across multiple disks. Imagine having to put a crucial 200GB file on a USB 2.0 drive, as you're late for an important meeting and running out the door. You'll be delayed for ten minutes or more, trust us. The same crucial information on a Thunderbolt attached drive - 20 seconds.

You can also daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices and/or a non-Thunderbolt monitor at the end of the chain. And, the bi-directional 10 Gbps performance of Thunderbolt allows all devices in the chain to achieve maximum throughput. They even throw in the Thunderbolt cable so Mac users can get started immediately.

But Thunderbolt isn't the only option. The Drobo Mini also sports USB 3.0 connections, which is still 12 x above the transfer rates for USB 2.0. This interface allows PC users to utilize the power of the Drobo 5D right out of the box.

The Drobo Mini also uses their proprietary Data-Aware Tiering technology, usually reserved for business-class storage solutions, but also available in this desktop Drobo. It intelligently uses the high-performance flash in SSDs to accelerate performance of the storage array, allowing applications such as Adobe Premiere and Apple Aperture fast access to data.

And the Drobo Mini is built on the BeyondRAID technology, which features single- or dual-drive redundancy. This added layer of protection will create  mirrors of one drive so that you'll always have a backup. Paired with the ability to hot-swap drives, this conceivably allows you to formulate a game plan on the fly in the case of a drive failure or power outage.

Speaking of power outages, the Drobo Mini also includes a battery backup - when power is spontaneously interrupted, the battery keeps the Drobo alive long enough for the data to be written to non-volatile storage. The battery recharges itself and is designed to last for the life of the product.

The design of the unit has you in mind as well -it's sleek, sturdy, and has a carrierless drive-bay design so that hard drives fit closer to each other, and the unit houses a significantly quieter variable-speed cooling fan.

The Drobo Mini is the perfect choice for content managers or data archivists that need speed, performance and capacity in one easy-to-use desktop enclosure.

BeyondRAID Technology

BeyondRaid Technology features single- or dual-drive redundancy. This added layer of protection will create  mirrors of one drive so that you'll always have a backup.

Data Aware Tiering

Data-Aware Tiering technology, usually reserved for business-class storage solutions, is also available in this portable Drobo. It intelligently uses the high-performance flash in SSDs to accelerate performance of the storage array, allowing applications such as Adobe Premiere and Apple Aperture fast access to data.

First Drobo with 2.5" Drives

Four hotswappable drive bays support drives of any capacity. No carriers or screws are needed to insert  drives into a Drobo Mini. An innovative new design allows drives to click in and out like a ballpoint pen. Since 2.5" drives are primarily used in laptop computers, they're designed to be portable. Because of this, you can pick up and move Drobo Mini around with confidence.

Thunderbolt and USB 3.0

Drobo Mini is equipped with dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining. Connect up to six Thunderbolt devices and/or a non-Thunderbolt monitor at the end of the chain. This allows even the most portable laptop computers access to high-performance storage while retaining connectivity to other devices and an external monitor. Drobo is the only storage array that offers Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. This latest USB also offers high-performance connectivity and is backward compatibility with computers running compatible versions of Mac OS X or Windows.

Power and Critical Data

Drobo doesn't just protect you from a drive failure, but also from potential data loss after a power outage. Drobo Mini includes a battery that protects all data in memory, or cache, that is, data on its way to the drives. When power spontaneously goes away, the battery keeps the Drobo alive long enough for the data to be written to nonvolatile storage. The battery recharges itself and is designed to last for the life of the product.