Workflow on-board and external storage

Workflow on-board and external storage

My photography is expanding rapidly, such that I have quickly run out of space on my harddrive, although my MacBook Pro is under 1 year old and when I bought it, was over dimensioned.

I'm looking for an updated storage / availability / backup solution.

I have recently purchased Aperture but I still use iPhoto in parallel. I import all photos into iPhoto and mostly sort them there, because I find it easier, not yet having had the time to discover whether Aperture can do it better. I use Aperture primarily for editing.

I also use iPhoto Library Manager, to organize a dozen mostly unimportant libraries on an external drive, available when I'm in the office.

My dilema is that I am traveling extensively and have even been buying small 1TB drives on the road to keep up with my need to back-up my SDHC cards.

I like the convenience of having everything "with me", but with the exponential need for more space I might have to change my thinking. Bandwidth constraints on-the-road and also the "waste of time aspect" suggest that small portable drives are possibly the best solution.

When back in the office however, I would also like to have "everything with me", daisy-chained or however, but I'm primarily looking for a professional workflow solution, which will also accommodate my travel requirements. Exchangeable drives which can be use in an "ice-box" type solution are OK for project based assignments which often can be archived "for ever". However, the (occasional*) need for access in remote countries creates problems and I'm not a friend of Cloud solutions. *Often when I'm away I have more peace and quiet for archiving and sorting old photo shoots then when I'm in the office.

Aperture will possibly become my preferred editor, but I am open.

Sorry if this is long, but I tried to cover everything which occurred to me to avoid excess "ping-pong."

Many thanks in advance!