Drobos flying off the shelves
Recession? What recession?
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
Nobody told Geoff Barrall's Data Robotics there was a recession. Sales have just doubled year-on-year in its second quarter, the company says.
Privately held Data Robotics makes Drobo, a 4- or 8-slot external storage device with RAID-like protection, user-installable hard drives, and a virtualised block storage pool. It's also got curvy elegant looks that wouldn't disgrace a desktop with a Mac on it. A Drobo Share provides file-level access to the stored data and the recent 8-slot Drobo Pro has given the company a product for SMEs.
The firm claims this quarter's sales grew 30 per cent compared to the first quarter and there are now 75,000 Drobos installed. The Drobo Pro product has helped ramp up sales, with Barrall, the CEO and founder of Data Robotics, saying: "DroboPro has been an incredible addition to our product portfolio and we’ve seen customer demand for the product at three times the rate we originally forecasted."
There's more coming, Barrall said: "We’re committed to delivering innovative, new solutions that further address the storage demands businesses face with the soaring growth of digital content.”
That sounds like a higher-capacity solution - perhaps a 16-slotter is on the way.
If Drobos can shift like this in a recession, what on earth will they do in a recovery? ®
COMMENTS
@AC 02:57
You back up to AIT, a helical scan format. Credibility failure. If the angle of the helical scan drifts, you're scuppered.
To the 'guru' AC @ 02:57
> I have decades of heavy-duty software development experience, network design, Web design, project management, and general all-purpose geekiness. I own a Drobo MkII, use a Drobo MkI and several of my employees use Drobos for their desktop backups.
Good luck mate. I suppose you've done a google of 'drobo data loss' ?
@AC 02:57
> Actually, I have more experience with both of these technologies than you could possibly imagine, as well as Linux, UNIX, and even some other OSes. I have decades of heavy-duty software development experience, network design, Web design, project management, and general all-purpose geekiness.
Wow, I bow down in honour your lordship -- yeah right. My daddy's bigger than yours too... :)
Your listed skills are pretty commonplace amongst slightly older geeks like yourself, so nothing special there. I could easily reel off a load of my skills too, but what would it prove?
However, it does amaze me that for someone who is supposedly so smart, why Drobo -- when the tales of woe of data loss are there for you to read aplenty?
Tell me one thing. What makes you so confident you won't lose your data using Drobo? And why would you choose to use a storage system which uses a proprietary unpublished format?
I wish you luck. Have a nice day too.
Oh, and one more thing. When you mentioned Linux in the following statement, what has Linux got to do with things -- the guy you laughed at was talking about something that used OpenSolaris and ZFS -- so I fail to see where Linux comes into things.
Here's your statement again: "At least, I'm really hoping this was a joke. If it wasn't, then we have a VERY good example of why Linux has yet to make serious inroads onto the Consumer Scene."
As your such a self-confessed expert on Drobo and ZFS, could you list each of the areas that Drobo beats the list of ZFS' protective features. Just in case you need to refresh your memory:
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/whatis/
You went AC too ... Pot... kettle... black :)
Have a nice day again!
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