Drobo Offering Amazon Web Services

Drobo, Inc. has certified a new hybrid cloud storage solution with Amazon Web Services.

The Drobo-AWS solution delivers a data protection mechanism for SMEs, by allowing them to combine Drobo storage arrays with AWS’s cloud storage services.

Leveraging the capabilities of AWS’ new Storage Gateway, users of the Drobo B800i and B1200i can 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 testing and details on the solution.

Drobo has also created a step-by-step implementation guide for customer and channel partners.

"Our SME 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. "SMEs 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 SMEs who are baffled by current technologies."

Drobo’s products have more than 200,000 customers, 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 stepping stone to the cloud for our customers," said Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Drobo. "Our research shows that more than 90 percent of SMEs 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’ new Storage Gateway delivers the flexibility businesses are looking for in an easy, affordable package."

Drobo products are based on patented BeyondRAID technology and certified for use with products from VMware and other 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 tiers data between traditional hard drives and next-generation SSDs.