LaCie unveils 48TB Thunderbolt 2 drive, Dropbox upgrades Pro plans to 1TB

Apple users gained two additional high-capacity storage options on Wednesday, as external drive maker LaCie showed off its new rack-mount Thunderbolt 2 drive in a 48 terabyte configuration and cloud storage firm Dropbox announced that its $9.99-per-month Pro plan will now include 1 terabyte of space.

LaCie says the 8big Rack is the fastest Thunderbolt 2 drive available, boasting transfer speeds up to 1,330 megabytes per second. It comes equipped with eight six-terabyte Seagate hard drives spinning at 7,200 rotations per minute that the company promises will deliver better throughput and simpler setup than competing fibre channel products.

"Thunderbolt delivers unparalleled performance, flexibility and simplicity to 4K video workflows," Intel Thunderbolt marketing chief Jason Ziller said. "Products like the LaCie 8big Rack help highlight what Thunderbolt makes possible for video editors."

As its name implies, the 8big Rack is designed to fit into a standard 1U rack space. The drive is available now from LaCie for $4,999.99 in the 48-terabyte configuration or $2,799.99 and $1,699.99 for 24-terabyte and 12-terabyte models, respectively.

Dropbox, meanwhile, announced a substantial space increase for its Dropbox Pro consumer product. The company bumped the capacity of the base $9.99-per-month plan from 100 gigabytes to 1 terabyte, and file version history will now be included for free.

Alongside the storage upgrades, Dropbox also announced new privacy options, including passwords and expirations for shared links and view-only permissions for shared folders. Users will also be able to remotely wipe the contents of their Dropbox folder on lost or stolen devices.