http://www.pointlessrants.com/2009/10/drobo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=drobo Rants that are usually about technology Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:18:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.pointlessrants.com/2009/10/drobo/comment-page-1/#comment-8241 decoy Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:50:18 +0000 http://www.pointlessrants.com/?p=621#comment-8241 @Phil: I didn't mean to suggest that the Drobo is missing a feature in partition level encryption. It was something that I had overlooked. It also seems odd that you suggest the more physically mobile (or easy to steal) a device is, the less you should consider its security because its less secure by design. I don't agree with this at all -- the more mobile something is, the more you should worry about its security. If I have a small USB drive with critical data on it, encrypting it is a requirement; to think anything else is foolish. @Phil: I didn’t mean to suggest that the Drobo is missing a feature in partition level encryption. It was something that I had overlooked. It also seems odd that you suggest the more physically mobile (or easy to steal) a device is, the less you should consider its security because its less secure by design. I don’t agree with this at all — the more mobile something is, the more you should worry about its security. If I have a small USB drive with critical data on it, encrypting it is a requirement; to think anything else is foolish.

]]> http://www.pointlessrants.com/2009/10/drobo/comment-page-1/#comment-8161 Phil Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:58:52 +0000 http://www.pointlessrants.com/?p=621#comment-8161 I'm not following your conclusion. If, as the sole purpose of your article would seem to preface, you want to encrypt data stored on a unit that someone else can easily walk away with (both which are a reasonable premise), then Drobo is not the answer. The company fell far short in not providing controller level encryption to deal with their unique volume allocation system. The fact that one can pick up and carry one of these units under one's arm, a unit that can contain 4-8 TB or your data, makes encryption a requirement within Drobo itself. Have you ever used Truecrypt? (Rhetorical question.) If you have, you'd know that a "fixed sized container" near equal to the size of a useful Drobo for primary or secondary data backup will take DAYS for the volume to be created. And then what? You LOSE the primary benefit of having a Drobo in the first place, which is the ease of volume expansion by simply replacing its hard drives with large ones on the fly... because your only alternative is to back up everything to SOMETHING ELSE (duh) so you can expand the Drobo volume then create another static sized volume and recreate the Truecrypt container. How the developers of Drobo left out controller-based encryption is beyond me. This is not a product for anyone who has an apartment (or even a house) without massive layers of physical protection. In the future, if you're writing articles about a particular use of a device, let your conclusion follow logically. If someone who needs SECURITY is looking at a Drobo as a solution, he or she is better advised to look elsewhere. I’m not following your conclusion. If, as the sole purpose of your article would seem to preface, you want to encrypt data stored on a unit that someone else can easily walk away with (both which are a reasonable premise), then Drobo is not the answer. The company fell far short in not providing controller level encryption to deal with their unique volume allocation system. The fact that one can pick up and carry one of these units under one’s arm, a unit that can contain 4-8 TB or your data, makes encryption a requirement within Drobo itself. Have you ever used Truecrypt? (Rhetorical question.) If you have, you’d know that a “fixed sized container” near equal to the size of a useful Drobo for primary or secondary data backup will take DAYS for the volume to be created. And then what? You LOSE the primary benefit of having a Drobo in the first place, which is the ease of volume expansion by simply replacing its hard drives with large ones on the fly… because your only alternative is to back up everything to SOMETHING ELSE (duh) so you can expand the Drobo volume then create another static sized volume and recreate the Truecrypt container. How the developers of Drobo left out controller-based encryption is beyond me. This is not a product for anyone who has an apartment (or even a house) without massive layers of physical protection. In the future, if you’re writing articles about a particular use of a device, let your conclusion follow logically. If someone who needs SECURITY is looking at a Drobo as a solution, he or she is better advised to look elsewhere.

]]> http://www.pointlessrants.com/2009/10/drobo/comment-page-1/#comment-5647 Tom Schultz Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:31:58 +0000 http://www.pointlessrants.com/?p=621#comment-5647 That thing is awesome! I want one. That thing is awesome! I want one.

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