Mike Peterson
Computer accessory company Iodyne has launched its first flagship product, an eight Thunderbolt port multi-SSD workgroup storage enclosure aimed at professional workflows and teams.
The Iodyne Pro Data is a powerful Thunderbolt storage solutions that supports speeds up to 5 GB/s. Users can also use the company's proprietary NVMe Multipathing design to boost performance with two Thunderbolt connections per host computer.
Iodyne claims that it's the fastest Thunderbolt storage solution for M1 Macs — or any computer. All data is also protected through RAID-6, checksums, and encryption.
"Pro Data is the first all-NVMe all-SSD Thunderbolt RAID device that combines 12 NVMe SSDs and eight Thunderbolt ports in a single elegant form factor," the company wrote. "Pro Data allows Pros to get their work done faster, rethink workflows and setups, and simplify how they protect their most important assets."
Pro Data is available in 12TB and 24TB storage capacities. Users can connect up to four computers simultaneously to the expansion system, and divide its storage pool into distinct containers with RAID levels and encryption keys.
Iodyne says its product is also uniquely designed for repairs, with open documentation, a free extended warranty, and industrial design decisions — such as the fact that its internal SSDs are accessible by unlocking just two screws.
The Pro Data starts at $3,950 for a 12TB-capacity model, or $7,500 for a 24TB model. Orders start shipping out on Jan. 3, 2022.
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5 Comments
OMG, so boss nasty!
Read up on some of the information on their website. This storage device can be used by four computers but I'm not exactly sure whether all of the storage is accessible by every computer at the same time. They actually offer 50m Thunderbolt cables. You can daisy chain up to six of these and their website shows a user with two of them tied together. It includes 12 slots and the NVMe blades come with attached heatsinks. It's funny that the M-series Macs rarely need a fan to keep cool while this device includes a 180W power adaptor. They make a big deal about repair but all this is is a box with a lid that comes off and the blades held in by one screw, typical for NVMe SSD enclosures. Replacing a SSD is not really repairing anything and I doubt anyone would even try repairing the computer board. Tech sheet doesn't mention fan or cool(ing) so it appears it isn't cooled at all. Their statement about running at up to 5GB/s means they feel their device can use the entire Thunderbolt3/4 bandwidth, which I doubt it can unless they use two TB3 ports that are on individual channels like the 2021 MBPs. If so, I'd see speeds in the more common 2800 range. Using RAID along with two TB channels might reach 5GB but the amazing thing is the M1 Max can do that with unified memory without RAID. It will be interesting if Apple is able to create some external storage solutions attached to their unified memory that compares favorably with Thunderbolt speeds. NVMe is available so all it takes is a way to connect it to the M-series SoC while maintaining the speed.
Do I need the speed? Of course I do (not!).
It's a pool of drives that each connected Mac (by up to two connections from each Mac for double throughput) can create a volume and use some of the 12TBs.
The volumes can't be directly used at the same time, there is tho a mention on their website of a "volume handoff feature" and you can still NFS SMB share tho... but only thru ethernet thru a computer connected.