Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Drobo Ease On-Ramp to the Cloud

New Drobo solution leverages the best of on-site and cloud data protection for small and medium businesses

SAN JOSE, CA – March 8, 2012 – Drobo, makers of the award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, today announced that it has certified a new hybrid cloud storage solution with Amazon Web Services. The Drobo-AWS solution delivers a robust, easy-to-use, and affordable data protection mechanism for small and medium businesses (SMBs), by allowing them to combine the ease and affordability of Drobo storage arrays with AWS’s cloud storage services.

Leveraging the breakthrough capabilities of AWS’s new Storage Gateway, users of the Drobo B800i and B1200i can reliably and affordably store their data locally, and elect to have point-in-time snapshots of that data seamlessly replicated to the Amazon S3 cloud for offsite disaster recovery purposes. Drobo has worked with AWS on this new integration, and has performed extensive testing and details on the solution. Drobo has also created a step-by-step implementation guide for customer and channel partners, available at www.drobo.com/aws.

“Our SMB customers want more of the cloud, but many of them also want to maintain a local copy of their data”, stated Matt Gerber, CEO of service provider IT-Lifeline, a cloud service provider and an AWS Solution Provider. “SMBs want seamless and more affordable data protection and access, so it’s great news that the easiest-to-manage storage, Drobo, is now working with the gold standard in cloud services, AWS.”

“The effortless integration between Drobo and AWS gives all companies cost effective cloud based backup that is reliable, scalable, and easy to deploy,” said Robin Harris, Chief Analyst StorageMojo.com. “This turns cloud storage into a practical business continuance tool for the millions of small and medium businesses who are baffled by current technologies.”

Drobo’s products are currently the storage of choice for more than 200,000 customers who value easy-to-use and affordable data protection, and Amazon Web Services stores more than 750 billion objects worldwide for enterprises of all sizes.

“Our long-term strategy at Drobo is to cloud-enable all our products and to deliver the easiest on-ramp to the cloud for our customers,” said Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Drobo. “Our research shows that more than 90 percent of SMBs will keep the majority of their data onsite during the next three years, but the majority will still need off-site backup from the cloud. The hybrid cloud solution we are delivering with AWS’s new Storage Gateway delivers the flexibility businesses are looking for in an easy, affordable package.”

Drobo products for business are known for being highly automated and affordable. They are based on patented BeyondRAID™ technology and certified for use with products from VMware and other leading technology products. Drobo’s latest SAN storage product for businesses, the model B1200i, further extends the company’s technological innovation with the introduction of automated data-aware tiering that seamlessly tiers data between traditional hard drives and next-generation solid-state drives (SSDs). Additional information on the Amazon AWS Storage Gateway can be found at aws.amazon.com/storagegateway.

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 www.drobo.com or follow the company on Facebook or Twitter @drobo.

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Drobo, DroboPro, DroboElite, BeyondRAID, and Smart Volumes are trademarks of Drobo, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions. Amazon Web Services is a registered trademark and/or trademark of Amazon in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used belong to their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Michelle Reingold
Trainer Communications for Drobo
(925) 271-8214
drobo@trainercomm.com