Drobo was a manufacturer of a series of external storage devices for computers, including DAS, SAN, and NAS appliances. Drobo devices can house up to four, five, eight, or twelve 3.5" or 2.5" Serial ATA or Serial Attached SCSI hard disk drives and connect with a computer or network via USB 2.0, USB 3.0, FireWire 800, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet or Thunderbolt. Drobo devices are primarily designed to allow installation and removal of hard disk drives without requiring manual data migration, for increasing storage capacity of the unit without downtime, and for data protection against drive failure.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware Computer data storage |
| Founded | San Jose, California, US (May 2005) |
| Founder | Geoff Barrall Julian Terry Ken Rosen |
| Defunct | April 28, 2023[1] |
| Headquarters | , US |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Mihir H. Shah, CEO Mike Edwards, CFO Rod Harrison, CTO |
| Products | Drobo |
| Website | www |
The company Drobo, Inc. changed its name from Data Robotics in 2011 since the familiarity with the Drobo name (which had only been the name of their product line until then) far exceeded the Data Robotics name.[2] Drobo, Inc. merged with Connected Data, Inc. in June 2013, with the new company taking the Connected Data name. In May 2015, the storage appliance business was spun-off as Drobo, Inc. and acquired by an investment group composed of seasoned tech executives[3] Drobo was later acquired by StorCentric in August, 2018.[4]
All Drobo products had been out of stock or severely inventory constrained in both the Drobo Store and retail channels since the beginning of 2020. Drobo initially blamed this on supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] In November, 2021, Drobo stated that more devices would be available in "the next few months".[6] In June 2022, StorCentric filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[7] After failing to find a buyer or reorganize the company, it shifted to Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2023.[8]
From the Drobo website: As of January 27th, 2023, Drobo support and products are no longer available. Drobo support has transitioned to a self-service model. The knowledge base, documentation repository, and legacy documentation library are still accessible for your support needs. We thank you for being a Drobo customer and entrusting us with your data.
As of February 8, 2024, the Drobo website at www.drobo.com is no longer accessible.
Products
editOverview
editConsumer models
edit| Drobo (1st) | Drobo (2nd) | Drobo (3rd) | Drobo 5C | Drobo S | Drobo S (2nd) | Drobo 5D | Drobo 5Dt | Drobo 5D3 | Drobo 8D | Drobo FS | Drobo 5N | Drobo 5N2 | Drobo Mini | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model Number | DR04DD10 | DR04DD14 | DDR3A21 | DDR4A21 | DRDR3A21 | DRDR4A21 | DRDR5A21 | DRDR5A21-T | DRDR6A21 | DRDR7A21 | DRDS2A21 | DRDS4A21 | DRDS5A21 | DR-Mini-1P11 |
| Release Date | 5 June 2007 | 8 July 2008 | 28 May 2014 | 4 October 2016 | 23 November 2009 | 16 November 2010 | 2 November 2012 | 21 June 2016 | 27 June 2017 | 13 November 2018 | 6 April 2010 | 13 December 2012 | 21 March 2017 | 26 October 2012 |
| Type | DAS | DAS | DAS | DAS | DAS | DAS | DAS | DAS | DAS | DAS | NAS | NAS | NAS | DAS |
| Drive Bays | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5+1* | 5+1** | 5+1* | 8+1*** | 5 | 5+1* | 5+1* | 4+1* |
| Redundancy | Single drive | Single drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive |
| Hosts | Single | Single | Single | Single | Single | Single | Single | Single | Single | Single | Up to 10 users | Single | ||
| Data-Aware Tiering | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| USB | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 (Type C) | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 (Type C) | No | No | No | No | 3.0 |
| FireWire 800 | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Gigabit Ethernet | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1x (AFP and CIFS/SMB) | 1x (AFP and CIFS/SMB) | 2x (independent, bonded, or failover links) | No |
| eSATA | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Thunderbolt | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | No | No | No | 1.0 |
| Max Storage Archived 2022-07-07 at the Wayback Machine | 4TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB | 64TB | 128TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB | 64TB | |
| Max Volume Size Archived 2022-07-07 at the Wayback Machine | 2TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB | 64TB | 256TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB | 64TB | |
| Largest size drive Archived 2022-07-07 at the Wayback Machine | 4TB | 12TB | 14TB | 4TB | 14TB | 14TB | 14TB | 14TB | 4TB | 14TB | 18TB[9] | 12TB |
- * Plus one mSATA SSD slot for Data-Aware Tiering[10]
- **Plus one 128 GB mSATA SSD card for Data-Aware Tiering[11]
- ***Plus one 2.5" SATA SSD bay for Data-Aware Tiering
Business models
edit| DroboPro | DroboPro FS | B800fs | B810n | DroboElite | B800i | B810i | B1200i | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model Number | DRPR1A21 | DRDS3A21 | DR-B800FS-4A21 | DR-B810N-5A21 | DREL1A21 | DR-B800I-2A21 | DR-B810I-3A21 | DRB1200I1A21 |
| Release Date | 7 April 2009 | 5 October 2010 | 8 February 2011 | 25 October 2015 | 23 November 2009 | 8 February 2011 | 23 February 2016 | 8 February 2011 |
| End of Support[12] | 14 December 2014 | 30 May 2012 | 19 September 2016 | N/A | 30 May 2012 | 19 September 2016 | N/A | 7 August 2019 |
| Type | DAS | NAS | NAS | NAS | SAN | SAN | SAN | SAN |
| Drive Bays | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 12 |
| Redundancy | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive | Single or dual drive |
| Hosts | Single | Up to 25 users | Up to 100 users | Up to 100 users | Up to 16 | Up to 8 | Up to 24 | |
| Data-Aware Tiering | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| USB | 2.0 | No | No | No | 2.0, Admin only | 2.0, Admin only | No | No |
| FireWire 800 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Gigabit Ethernet | 1x (iSCSI) | 2x (AFP and CIFS/SMB) | 2x (AFP and CIFS/SMB) | 2x (AFP and CIFS/SMB) | 2x (iSCSI) | 2x (iSCSI) | 2x (iSCSI) and 1x (Management) | 3x (iSCSI) and 1x (Management) |
| Max Storage Archived 2022-07-07 at the Wayback Machine | 32TB | 32TB | 32TB | 64TB | 32TB | 32TB | 64TB | 128TB |
| Max Volume Size Archived 2022-07-07 at the Wayback Machine | 16TB | 16TB | 16TB | 64TB | 16TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB |
| Largest Size Drive Archived 2022-07-07 at the Wayback Machine | 4TB | 4TB | 4TB | 14TB | 4TB | 4TB | 14TB | 8TB (SATA) 6TB (SAS) |
References
edit- ^ "Drobo parent company StorCentric shifts to Chapter 7 bankruptcy".
- ^ Owens, Jeremy (2011-07-21). "Data Robotics officially changes name, moves to San Jose". MercuryNews.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-10.
- ^ "Drobo Acquired by Investment Group Comprised of Seasoned Tech Executives". drobo.com (Press release). Santa Clara, California: Drobo. May 20, 2015. Archived from the original on July 11, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
- ^ "StorCentric to Acquire Drobo and Nexsan". storcentric.com (Press release). 2018-08-21. Archived from the original on 2019-05-18. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
- ^ @Drobo (February 19, 2020). "The Coronoavirus outbreak in China ..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ @Drobo (November 29, 2021). "We are expecting a restock of 5N2's and 5D3's to our US store in the next few months!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Gallagher, William (2022-07-06). "Storage firm Drobo has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy". AppleInsider. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
- ^ Hilliard, Wesley (May 15, 2023). "Drobo parent company StorCentric shifts to Chapter 7 bankruptcy". Apple Insider. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
- ^ "Capacity Calculator". Drobo. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
- ^ "Drobo Mini". drobo.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-09-10.
- ^ Bolander, Jane (2016-06-21). "Drobo Announces the Drobo 5D Turbo, the Only 5 Bay DAS With Thunderbolt™ 2 and USB 3.0 for Power Users". drobo.com (Press release). Archived from the original on 2016-11-27. Retrieved 2016-11-27.
- ^ "End of Life Announcement". Drobo. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.