Drobo Expands Global Partner Program With New Products, Services and Support for Business

New Drobo Business Products Pave Way for 'Big Storage in a Small Box' and Expanded Opportunity for Resellers and VARs


SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - February 8, 2011) - Drobo, makers of the award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, today announced that in conjunction with its new Drobo line of business products, the company has also expanded its partner program for value-added-resellers (VARs). The Drobo Business Premier program features exclusive access to solution content, deal registration, margin protection, demand generation and other premier benefits.

"Our partners benefit from proven industry solutions like Drobo that they can put in front of their customers," said Simon Crosby, CTO, Datacenter and Cloud Division, Citrix. "In today's business climate, resellers must build an arsenal of proven technologies, support, services and affordability that sells itself and delights customers. Drobo, as a company and a product, is one of those setting the bar."

Drobo resellers and distributors around the world have benefited from selling solutions based on "the best storage experience ever," which includes a highly differentiated and proven storage technology, a comprehensive support network and a range of marketing programs that ensure the rapid and profitable introduction of Drobo to its small and medium business (SMB) customers. Drobo Business Premier partners can offer primary and secondary storage solutions that are certified for Citrix®, Microsoft Exchange®, Symantec®, VMware® and environments that provide a variety of unique file backup and offsite archiving to SMBs - at an easier-to-use and more affordable price point than legacy 'big box' storage options. 

"Nurturing the channel is key to our growth, particularly the small percentage of our resellers we qualify as Business Premier," said Tom Buiocchi, CEO at Drobo. "Drobo is committed to extending support and programs that ensure delivery of our award-winning storage solutions to business customers quickly, easily and at the highest margins for our partners."

Partners Agree: Drobo Means Business
"Plan B Government Systems is built around providing better business solutions and services for government organizations, and we choose our solution partners with care," said Bill Grimsley, vice president for Plan B Government Systems, Inc. (PBGSI). "The Drobo solution was a natural fit as was the company's shared commitment to customer satisfaction. Drobo delivers premium storage to help protect important office documents, data and other files against a hard drive failure. Simply put, Drobo delivers big storage without the big price tag or management headaches."

Greg Knieriemen, co-host of the Infosmack Podcast and vice president at Chi Corporation, one of the leading storage solution providers, adds, "Drobo products will help SMB customers significantly reduce IT-related storage costs with increased efficiency and fast-track deployment times. Reasonable pricing also doesn't upset budgets, which translates into selling more value-add virtualization, email and backup projects that our customers are looking for today."

"Given its ease of use, affordability and certification with all the major solutions, Drobo is probably the fastest sales-cycle storage we deal with," said Gary Nichols, CEO at Interdev, LLC, an IT consulting firm and Drobo partner. "But the bottom line is that Drobo-based solutions give customers an unprecedented user experience and satisfaction, and we are committed to offering technology that works for the particular needs of small and medium businesses. Drobo customers are happy customers and that means they will come back for more." 

"Small and medium businesses need trusted IT partners to identify and provide affordable, easy-to-use and worry-free products and practices for their unique and specific storage needs," explained James Carter, CTO for The Integration Works. "We have 'kicked the tires' and thoroughly tested the product line and are impressed by Drobo's technology and partner support. We look forward to bringing these benefits to our customers."

With more than 150,000 customers and 2,000 resellers and partners enrolled, Drobo's standard global channel program is a proven success. The expanded Business Premier program, serving well-known distribution partners and resellers including CDW®, HP®, PC Connection® and Insight®, among others, brings additional benefits to VARs and technology distributors that require traditional storage alternatives for savvy professionals and the SMB market.

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 small and medium businesses and hundreds of thousands of individual professionals worldwide, who use it to support their file backup and media archiving, server virtualization, and email application needs. To learn more, visit http://www.drobo.com or follow us on Twitter @drobo.

Data Robotics, Drobo, DroboPro, DroboElite and BeyondRAID are trademarks of Data Robotics, Inc., that may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks used are owned by their respective owners.

Contact Information:

Media Contact:
Kelly Indrieri
Kulesa Faul for Drobo
(650) 340-1983
Press@drobo.com