Drobo B810n 16TB: Network Attached Storage (NAS) 8-Drive Hybrid Storage Array with Seagate IronWolf Pro HDDs and 1x240GB SSD - Gigabit Ethernet x 2 ports (DR-B810n-5A21-16H)

I've had my business' Drobo B810n for almost 6 months now and I can say this NAS is great. Transfer speeds are fine for what we need (~120-160 MBps, no less than 110) and it's instantly responsive whenever being used. I cannot attest to how well this would would in a large user environment but with 10 people using it throughout the day we have had no issues. We're a small business and this provides more space than we possibly need at the moment with 21 Terabytes with dual disk redundancy and the ability to expand should we need it. Expanding is super easy, just remove one drive and insert another one, waiting for the rebuild/re-balance to finish should you need to replace more than one drive. I also have one off site which mirrors the one on site. Mirroring is easy, just point it at the IP of the target Drobo. I recommend the first Mirror being done at the same site unless you have Gigabit internet. As for support I can't talk about recovering data using outside solutions as Drobo isn't a standard raid file system (Ext3/4, ZFS), instead using a proprietary system, but I can say that my site had one almost major issue that was resolved without issue. 3 months after purchase my site had a serious power issue due to brownouts causing the Drobo to eventually refuse to power up (we've since purchased a UPS for the Drobo). I went ahead and bought Drobocare as this was an urgent matter and I didn't want to wait for someone to get back to me via email or for my unit to be shipped to them and then returned after repair. Drobocare is expensive but I was able to call their support line, instantly get a hold of an engineer, provide my info and they shipped me a new unit right away. It arrived the very next day, I swapped the drives and we were up and running while it rebuilt itself. The NAS is usable while rebuilding. We haven't had any problems since. Overall I'm very happy with this storage solution. All and all an extremely well performing NAS that's dead simple to implement.

This device disconnects a lot and prompts me to sign in... mid backup. I'm copying over files from my SD cards and computer from each video shoot I complete, but the copy fails sometimes because it disconnects. I've submitted multiple support tickets and spent countless hours troubleshooting - however, to Drobo's credit, their customer support team is on it and they really care about making sure this unit works. I use the 5D3 Drobo as well and it hasn't given me any problems. I'm still a Drobo fan, but it seems like the B810n has a few more steps to take before it can fit into my workflow.

The hardware is fantastic. The only thing (that was) keeping this from 5 stars is the abysmal customer support from Drobo post-purchase. Update (2017-10-16): I was personally contacted today (by email and then by phone) by Valorie from Drobo. I explained my grievances to her, and we were able to determine that there were apparently some fairly major technical issues with their CRM software (support ticket system) which somehow meant that I never received any emails or updates for the support cases I created. She assured me that they are working internally to determine what happened and to resolve this issue. Update (2017-11-16): After a lot of work on their end, their support ticket system seems to be fixed, and I can see all the comments on my cases now, and I actually get emails when they reply to the case. Raising this review to 5 stars for their dedication to fixing this critical issue. Update (2019-03-05): Last month, one of the cooling fans started making interesting noises, so I opened a support ticket to have it repaired (I don't have DroboCare). After some back and forth, comparing the sound of the unit with and without disks, etc., they determined that I would need to RMA the unit. When they gave me the address I needed to send it to, I noticed that it was only a few miles from my house, so I asked if I could just drive it over myself. I expected a bureaucratic, "no, you have to mail it, that's the policy," but they actually told me that would be absolutely fine! When I got there, a really nice employee (sorry, I don't remember your name) offered to repair the unit while I waited. 40 minutes later, I had a fully repaired Drobo and was on my way. If I could give 6 stars for Drobo's support team going above and beyond, I would.

We purchased 2 of these units at over $3000.00 a pop for a client of ours very recently. All firmware is up to date, all updates applied. We also have Synology NAS devices that give us no problems. We have tried and tried to work with Drobo support and "we" continually have to follow up with them (they NEVER call us back when promised), we send them emails, get an automated response, we respond back and get a email from a live person usually about a week later telling us to try something we have already been told to try and then they tell us it wasnt updated in the ticket on their end! This has been going on for over a month now. Our main problem is transferring a file (or files) to the drobo or from the drobo, its extremely SLOW, 2-5 minutes to transfer a file a 1GB file on a flat 1GB network. Transferring files from the file servers, VM's, Synology's.. it works fine, its just the Drobos. We actually have one Drobo set up with 35TB of storage space and the other drobo is a real time backup of the first Drobo, so the users are technically only hitting 1 Drobo. It's about 15 users in a graphic design company. I bought these units based on the few good reviews i saw on Amazon. At this point we do not know what to do. We are desperate for Drobo to help us. I am going to send another email support now with a link to this Amazon review so they know who we are. We want to like these units but so far the units are not working correctly and the support is horrible (that comes from 10 of my support desk technicians that never complain about anything typically). If Drobo gets this resolved and helps us, i will update my review, but for now, this has cost us a tremendous amount of time, money and damaged our reputation and confidence with our client.

I ordered this unit on August 2018. Still works perfectly almost a year later. No issues and firmware updates are provided regularly. Lightning fast access speeds. I also use a few SSD's.