Drobo
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer storage |
| Predecessor | Data Robotics (2005–2011) |
| Founded | 2005 in San Jose, California, United States |
| Fate | Acquired by StorCentric in August 2018; discontinued product sales January 2023; website offline February 2024 |
| Headquarters | San Jose , United States |
| Products | External storage solutions including DAS, SAN, NAS systems; Drobo product line |
| Parent | StorCentric (from August 2018) |
Drobo specialized in manufacturing external storage solutions, encompassing Direct-attached storage (DAS), Storage area network (SAN), and Network-attached storage (NAS) systems. The company’s premier product shared the same name, Drobo. Between 2005 and 2011, it operated under the name Data Robotics.
History
Established in San Jose, California, in 2005, Data Robotics underwent a rebranding in 2011 to adopt the Drobo name, capitalizing on the product's higher market recognition. In June 2013, Drobo merged with Connected Data, Inc., and the combined entity took on the Connected Data identity. The storage appliance segment was separated in May 2015 and purchased by a consortium of seasoned technology executives. Subsequently, in August 2018, StorCentric acquired Drobo.
Starting in early 2020, Drobo faced significant inventory shortages across both direct sales and retail outlets, initially linked to supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By November 2021, the company projected that select models would be restocked within several months. Nevertheless, in June 2022, StorCentric filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and later moved to Chapter 7 liquidation in April 2023 after unsuccessful restructuring efforts and failure to secure a buyer.
As of January 27, 2023, Drobo discontinued product sales and shifted its customer support to a self-service format with legacy materials accessible online. By February 8, 2024, the official Drobo website was no longer operational.
Overview
Drobo units accommodate up to twelve 3.5" or 2.5" Serial ATA or Serial Attached SCSI hard disk drives and offer connectivity options including USB 2.0, USB 3.0, FireWire 800, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, and Thunderbolt. These devices enable hot-swapping of drives without requiring manual data migration, facilitating seamless capacity expansion without service interruption while safeguarding data against disk failures.
Consumer models
| 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 | June 5, 2007 | July 8, 2008 | May 28, 2014 | October 4, 2016 | November 23, 2009 | November 16, 2010 | November 2, 2012 | June 21, 2016 | June 27, 2017 | November 13, 2018 | April 6, 2010 | December 13, 2012 | March 21, 2017 | October 26, 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 ten users | Single | Data-Aware Tiering | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | USB | Yes (2.0) | Yes (2.0) | Yes (3.0) | Yes (3.0 Type C) | Yes (2.0) | Yes (3.0) | Yes (3.0) | Yes (3.0) | Yes (3.0 Type C) | No | No | No | No | Yes (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 Yes (1x AFP and CIFS/SMB) Yes (1x AFP and CIFS/SMB) Yes (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 Yes (1.0) Yes (2.0) Yes (3.0) Yes (3.0) No No No Yes (1.0) |
Max Storage
| |
Max Volume Size
| |
Largest size drive
4TB 12TB 14TB 4TB 14TB 14TB 14TB 14TB 4TB 14TB 18TB 12TB |
- * Includes one mSATA SSD slot for Data-Aware Tiering
- ** Includes one mSATA SSD card of 128 GB capacity for Data-Aware Tiering
- *** Includes one SATA SSD bay sized at 2.5" for Data-Aware Tiering
Business models
| 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 |
| Launch 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 |
| Support Discontinued | 14 December 2014 | 30 May 2012 | 19 September 2016 | Not applicable | 30 May 2012 | 19 September 2016 | Not applicable | 7 August 2019 |
| Category | DAS | NAS | NAS | NAS | SAN | SAN | SAN | SAN |
| Number of Drive Bays | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 12 |
| Redundancy Options | Single or dual disk redundancy | Single or dual disk redundancy | Single or dual disk redundancy | Single or dual disk redundancy | Single or dual disk redundancy | Single or dual disk redundancy | Single or dual disk redundancy | Single or dual disk redundancy |
| Supported Hosts | Single host | Up to 25 users | Up to 100 users | Up to 100 users | Up to 16 users | Up to 8 users | Up to 24 users | |
| Data-Aware Tiering Availability |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| USB Connectivity |
Yes, version 2.0 |
No |
No |
No |
Limited (2.0, admin only) |
Limited (2.0, admin only) |
No |
No |
|- ! FireWire 800 Interface | | | | | | | | |- ! Gigabit Ethernet Support | | | | | | | | |} |- ! Maximum Storage Capacity | 32TB | 32TB | 32TB | 64TB | 32TB | 32TB | 64TB | 128TB | |} |- ! Maximum Volume Capacity | 16TB | 16TB | 16TB | 64TB | 16TB | 16TB | 64TB | 64TB | |} |- ! Maximum Drive Size Supported | 4TB | 4TB | 4TB | 14TB | 4TB | 4TB | 14TB | 8TB (SATA), 6TB (SAS) | }