Apple backup?

I was listening to the podcast of the Girl Gone Geek from MacWorld, where they were briefly talking about backup methods. They asked the audience to chose between Apple's Time Machine vs. Data Robotics Drobo. I don't think you have to chose, in fact they would work together very well.

For starters, Apple's Time Machine requires a second hard drive of equal or larger capacity then the one you'll be backing up. Time Machine will be constantly monitoring all the files in the drive for changes and make backup of anything it finds. If you happen to accidentally erase a file, you can use Time Machine to recover the file that was copied to the second hard drive. Just hope that second drive doesn't fail!

Drobo is at it's most basic function nothing else than an external hard drive. A hard drive that can easily be used with an Apple computer to implement the Time Machine feature of the lastest OS X. While it does cost more than an external hard drive alone, it provides a level of reliability associated with RAID-5, with out the hassles of setup and maintenance. Drobo by itself only ensures that if a drive dies, you don't lose your the data on it. Drobo automatically copies the files you send to it to at least a two of the drives you'll have installed in it's bays. If one drive fails, you don't lose your files. And if you need more storage, all you have to do is change a drive (I recommend the smallest one) with a larger capacity one, you don't even need to turn the drobo OFF.

Put this two technologies together and you get the best of both worlds. Automatic back-ups to a hard drive that will never fail and gives you room to grow as you need it. In fact even the folks at drobo have a page touting the advantage of using a drobo with Apple's Time machine.