Against the advice of smarter people than me, I went ahead and bought a Drobo along with Droboshare for use at my office. It seemed, at the time, to be a great way to eliminate to the escalating chain of USB and Firewire drives that was beginning to overwhelm my desk. And as a firewire device, as External Storage, the Drobo is as promised. It's a very nice alternative to having a handful of stupid little external drives cluttering up my desk. The idea of infinitely expandable, hot swappable, redundantly backed up external storage is sexy and alluring.

And if you're the kind of person who can stomach paying $1000 for a really big firewire drive, go for it. But if you're looking for networked storage, forget about it. It's garbage. Pure garbage. Lies heaped on half-truths, wrapped in a layer of near-uselessness.

I didn't think a product that was getting as much love as the Drobo-- a product that seemed so focused on usability, would dare release a product that is as Bad as the Droboshare. But they did. And it sucks. How much does it suck? This screenshot of my morning data transfer says at least 1,000 words;

Now I have a drobo on my desk _and_ a jumble of external storage devices that I can use when I need speedy access to drives. The Droboshare's ineptitude actually broke one of the most user-facing features of the Drobo-- that I'd be rid of that jumble of other external drives.

The Bottom Line: The Drobo is a consumer class product that should be considered only as a external storage device. THe Droboshare as it exists today has no business on a network. None. I am a disapointed man.

An aside: I'm told the DroboPro is a much less horrible network experience. Unfortunately, I just can't justify spending another $1,200 on a hope that the product won't suck as badly as the first $1,200 I just spent. If Data Robotics, the makers of the Drobo wanted to trade me up to a DroboPro (or DroboElite), I would happy try that out and report back.