Do I stay with DROBO or move on?

[Enquiries]

Thanks for your advice and help.

I am a professional photographer working from home and reasonably competent with IT without being IT trained

I have used DROBO for several years and my D5 and D5T have never let me down. Sure disks needed to be replaced but nothing worrying!

What does worry me is whether I should a) stay with Drobo or b) move to a new platform? I use my RAID system to house my photographs (some 20TB worth) on WD disks of capacity between 10 and 20TB and overseen by Adode Lightroom Classic

[Robbie]

Hi! So, sorry to say it, but yeah Drobo is going going to be abe to support you long term. That sounds FANTASTICALLY bleak, but I just mean that there almost certainly will be few/no products in future, RMA replacements not really available and human-support slow/non-existent. Now, I assume your systems are out of warranty anyway, so support was largely off the table anyway. I would recommend migrating over to a Synology DS920+, as it has practically all the features that your 5D has + many, MANY more. As long as your have another backup tier, it is not hugely urgent for you though and I would stick with what works for now in your hardware setup and upgrade WHEN you need to. At the very least, watch my 'DSM 7 Review - Almost Perfection' video for some idea on what you are missing.

For the 5DT DAS box, this is trickier, as Drobo did a hell of a good job on that box - RAID 5, TB3, Battery failure, BeyondRAID, unpopulated AND still cheaper than everyone else. In 2022 I have been recommended OWC as an alternative to Drobo for this kind of setup and I would do so again here. Thanks for following our work.

Apologies for the slow reply buddy - Eddie (the Web Guy) covers ASKNC much more than me, whilst I make vids and articles etc. However, he is on a long, LONG overdue holiday this week and I am filling in as much as I can.