Drobo 5N2 5-Bay Self-Managing NAS Review

Final Thoughts: Pricing and Conclusion

Pricing

The brand new Drobo 5N2 is either available now, or it will be shortly. It all depends a bit on your location. At the time of writing, it can be found on Amazon UK for £576.99 and on Amazon US for $567.99.

Overview

I had high expectations when I started to test the Drobo 5N2. I have previously tested the Drobo 5N, and the 5N2 has the upgrades that were missing in that one, so I wasn’t disappointed at all.

Drobo allows anyone to set up and use a NAS without the need for a lot of knowledge. The NAS is self-managing for the most parts and where you need to make choices, everything is explained. That doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on features and functionality. On the contrary. The Drobo 5N2 is packed with great features such as BeyondRAID, built-in backup battery, improved processor, and dual network connectivity.

BeyondRAID is awesome as it goes beyond traditional RAID arrays. It allows you to mix and match drives as you please and still retain full system security in the event of up to two drive failures. The built-in battery pack is another great safety feature that makes sure that all data has been written to the drives in the event of a power failure. The dual network connectivity provides redundancy in case of network failure or you can use it to connect the NAS to two different subnets.

The device is fully tool-less and there aren’t even drive caddies. That makes it very easy to install drives as you simply need to slide them into the device. The mSATA port at the bottom can add more power to the system as it allows for caching of hot data. The installation of the mSATA module is also tool-less and it doesn’t even require you to open up the system.

Plenty of extra apps add to the functionality and they provide everything from blogging platforms and email servers over download clients and media streaming to coding languages and editors.

Business users will love the Disaster Recovery feature that allows you to duplicated all the NAS’ content and user setup to another device which then can jump in should the first fail. Another great feature for businesses, but also for SOHO users, is the optional DroboCare extended warranty and support.

Pros:

• Powerful CPU for better performance
• Dual LAN
• Tool-less installation
• mSATA hot data cache feature
• Built-in battery backup
• Idiot-proof initialisation and setup
• Disaster Recovery

Cons:

• No external storage connectors

“The Drobo 5N2 allows home users and businesses alike to keep their data safe without the hassle of tedious setups. It simply works, it works effectively, and it offers impressive safety features.”

Thank you Drobo for providing us with this review sample.