Storage Options?

[kkielinski]

I'm a photographer on staff at a publishing company.

We create about 2TB of raw files a year.  Currently, those files are downloaded, catalogued, etc.  We end up with up to eight psd's from a shoot available for download from a web based searchable photo archive.   Pre-2008 all of our stuff is backed up twice on DVD.  It's a lot of DVD's and a lot of time spent burning.
Our big problem is coming up with a solution raw file storage and backup.  Oh, and speed, as well, on a local network.  We currently back up on a 2TB software RAID and work off of a duplicate 2TB software RAID.  They aren't very fast or very stable.  Like, two gigs of images takes 15 minutes to load up in bridge and one of the RAIDs failed last week.  Ideally, I'm looking for something fast, stable, and networkable maybe in 8TB and scalable from there.  Our images get reused often so having old shoots readily available is desirable.  Something like a Drobo or NetGear?  Server?  Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Kyle

[rogerhoward]

Drobo, and other low-end NAS devices, will *not* be fast - Drobo particularly...

I've got software RAID at home that peaks at over 300MB/s for reads, more than fast enough for image work. It wasn't said explicitly, but I'm assuming you want something fast, stable, networkable, *and* cheap? It's certainly possible to do, but you'll be more or less building your own - if you want something supported, bring in a few vendors who know what they are doing. Drobo and it's ilk won't be fast, may not be stable, and aren't particularly scalable.