We've been having some issues with the reliability and speed of external drives. As many of our clients are now switching to Hard Disk backup as per our recommendations, we set out to find fast, reliable and cost effective solutions.

The worlds first Data Robot. This drive is simply incredible. Feed it whatever capacity drives in any of its 4 bays, and it configures itself automatically to provide maximum capacity at maximum protection. The safe, expandable Drobo storage solution protects your data against a hard drive crash, yet can expand dynamically at any time in just seconds. With nothing to configure or manage, Drobo is now the ideal solution for primary storage as well as backup.

To calculate what drive configurations you need to achieve the storage requirements, use the Drobolator. For example, to have maximum capacity, you need 4 x 1.5TB for a total usable data storage of 4.1TB

Drobo :: £399

Drives - 500GB :: £80 - 1TB :: £110 - 1.5TB :: £155 - 2TB :: £227

Typical cost :: Drobo pre-configured with 4.1TB @£1019 +VAT

The mXtreme RAID solution uses 2 internal RAID SATA drives , it delivers maximum speed through its FireWire 800 interface. As the two trays are interchangeable, you also have access to infinite storage. Extra trays are used to house 500GB-3TB and storing the extra drives takes much less space than conventional external drives. The RAID array can be configured in 4 different ways, ranging from maximum data protection to maximum speed.

How does it work: Your first unit includes the drive mechanism and 2 trays configured with the desired capacity. After that, you will only need to get the trays and drives, thus making it more cost effective.

mXtreme unit - £160

Drives - 500GB :: £80 - 1TB :: £110 - 1.5TB :: £155 - 2TB :: £227

Extra Trays - £18 each

Typical cost :: mXtreme pre-configured with 3TB @£470 +VAT