Data Robotics Shipped 60,000 Drobo

Data Robotics, Inc. announced it closed an extraordinary year in terms of growth and industry acclaim for its Drobo storage products, with record 2008 sales and over 60,000 units being sold worldwide to date. Through a channel network of more than 1,000 partners worldwide, Data Robotics increased product awareness and penetrated new markets including small office/remote office, state/local government, and education.

The ability to dynamically expand the total storage capacity of a Drobo by simply adding additional drives is essential for simple growth and lowest cost of ownership over time. A recent survey of the Data Robotics installed base identified that on average, customer’s purchase three hard drives for every Drobo, and that each Drobo holds approximately 2.6TB of data. Cumulatively, Drobo customers have consumed over 127 Petabytes of storage (127,000 Terabytes). As a group, Drobo owners are among the largest purchasers of high capacity disk drives in the market.

"Each year that passes brings with it data growth across all market segments — from enterprise organizations to consumers," said Brian Babineau, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "This escalation in information leads to immeasurable demand for primary storage and protection solutions that can scale and are easy to use. Because their products include enterprise-class features that are easily implemented, maintainable and upgradeable, Data Robotics is uniquely positioned to meet the storage needs of a wide variety of consumers and SMBs. Their broad-based appeal manifested itself in the company’s enormous and unprecedented growth."

Data Robotics received notable awards and recognition for Drobo in 2008, including:

• PC World 100 Best Products of 2008
• Fast Company Fast 50 Reader Favorites
• 2008 Cool Vendor by Gartner
• Over 25 ‘best of’ awards

"During the past year Data Robotics experienced tremendous industry recognition, forged strong channel partnerships and addressed a critical need for customers looking for simple, customizable storage solutions. These factors have fueled our growth and helped us establish market leadership," said Dr. Geoff Barrall, CEO, Data Robotics. "Our outlook for 2009 remains strong as we continue to focus on customer satisfaction and deliver unique products to address new markets. We will continue to build out our global market presence by remaining true to our customers’ core storage needs: simplicity, advanced data protection, affordability, and scalability."