PopPhoto.com has a review of the Drobo 5D, a five bay RAID external storage device. This Drobo device is not a NAS, but it can perform similar functions if connected to a computer on a home network.
Since PopPhoto is a site centered around photography, the review is slanted toward what a photographer might need and the technical knowledge someone not necessarily in a technology field might possess.
Overall the review had a favorable wrapup for the main selling points of the Drobo 5D, namely speed and security, but also pointed out some negative issues in data recovery and pricing:
The 5D is ultimately an expensive tool that does what it is designed to do—provide fast access to mission-critical, redundant data, and lots of it—extremely well. But it’s not a one-stop backup solution; Drobo’s proprietary tech makes salvaging your data without Drobo hardware an impossible task. Drobo representatives even recommend backing up the data on the 5D on a separate external drive for added security. We would go so far as to recommend additional backup off-site, using a cloud service like Amazon Glacier or Mozy. But, you should really have something like that anyway.
If you’re a photographer with an editing station, and you can afford it, you’re unlikely to find a simpler, more effective tool to store your photos.
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