Drobo Momentum Sets the Stage for Storage 3.0

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - Jun 6, 2011) - Drobo, makers of the award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, today announced corporate momentum and growth across hiring, partners, and customers, as the market readies for a wave of new storage companies, called Storage 3.0 by a leading industry analyst.

In the last four months alone, Drobo introduced a new business line custom built for small and medium businesses (SMB), completed two key executive hires and achieved record year-on-year growth and sales levels. Drobo continues to invest for growth and is well positioned for Storage 3.0, the emerging storage trend following extensive industry consolidation, and driven by demand for more application-aware, experience-driven approaches to storage, particularly in the SMB market.

Beyond product, team and customer expansion, Drobo built out its channel strategy with the recent addition of David Bangs as senior vice president of worldwide sales and expansion of the global partner network, including the new Drobo Business Premier program. Drobo was also named a CDW Sapphire Partner, an earned distinction for technology solutions identified as important to CDW customers in specific market segments.

"CDW recognizes Drobo as a respected brand and valued partner," said Matt Troka, Senior Vice President of CDW Product and Partner Management. "The company's success bringing differentiated, innovative solutions to the small and medium business market makes them an ideal Sapphire Partner and a company to watch."

Storage 3.0 demands a new kind of business.
Drobo initially made a name for itself in the storage space by designing out the legacy storage limitations of RAID, to deliver a radically simpler, more flexible and more affordable storage experience for end users. The company has been highlighted as a leading example of a Storage 3.0 company for its paradigm-breaking approaches to traditional technology.

"Storage 3.0 reflects the need for powerful but easy to deploy, application-driven storage, and innovators like Drobo are leading the charge," said Brent Bracelin, senior research analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. "In contrast to legacy storage companies who built complex, high-administration 'big boxes,' Drobo has built a box that's intelligent enough to auto-tier, thin provision, and adapt to end users' needs in real-time."

Supported by this new industry trend, Drobo continues to invest in new talent and innovation that transforms the storage experience. Recent momentum includes:

• Product innovation -- In February 2011, Drobo introduced the first business line of Drobo products designed from the ground up for the SMB market.
• Customer growth -- The new business products, Drobo models B800fs and B800i, spurred Drobo to record Q1 growth and sales, driven largely by business customer adoption.
• Key executive hires -- Drobo welcomed David Bangs as senior vice president of worldwide sales and Kevin Epstein as vice president of marketing.
• Channel momentum -- Drobo was designated a CDW Sapphire Partner, defined by CDW as "companies with innovative products and/or services driving emerging or breakthrough trends in the technology marketplace." In February 2011, Drobo expanded its global partner network and introduced the Drobo Business Premier program.

"We've grown in every area of the business, and also deepened relationships with our partners and customers," said Tom Buiocchi, CEO at Drobo. "Customers are telling us that they welcome a new approach to storage -- Storage 3.0 -- and this is absolutely the right path to joint success."

About Drobo
Drobo makes award-winning data storage products for small and medium businesses and individual professionals that provide an unprecedented combination of sophisticated data protection and management features, affordable capacity, and ease-of-use. Based on the patented and proven BeyondRAID™ technology, Drobo's ability to deliver "Big Storage in a Small Box" creates the best storage experience ever for hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses and individual professionals worldwide, who use it to support their file backup and media archiving, server virtualization, and email application needs. To learn more, visit http://www.drobo.com or follow us on Twitter @drobo.

Data Robotics, Drobo, DroboPro, DroboElite and BeyondRAID are trademarks of Data Robotics, Inc., that may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.