Data storage company Drobo is facing an uncertain future. Late last month, the brand and its parent company, StorCentric, both simultaneously filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in California’s Northern Bankruptcy Court, Pop Photo reported. It’s sad news for one of the earliest names in both direct- and network-attached storage, but it’s not necessarily the end quite yet, as one or both companies could emerge rejuvenated. Should that happen, hopefully, the brand’s products will have been reworked to reflect the needs and realities of the current storage market. Founded in mid-2005 as Data Robotics, the company quickly came to be defined by its first product, the original Drobo “storage robot.” Launched in 2007, the device was lauded by the likes of Ars Technica, Engadget, TechCrunch, and more. And to be clear, the brand still certainly has its fans even today. But those heady early days and the company’s fortunes weren’t to last. While Drobo’s products had their standout features when compared to the competition — most notably, the ability to simply and easily mix drives of varying specifications within a single array — those same features have also proven to be an Achilles heel in other respects. Not surprisingly, the heady praise of Drobo’s early reviews couldn’t last, and public opinion likewise started to fragment. Within just five short years, the now eponymously-named Drobo found itself pitted against other early rivals like Synology, Thecus, and QNAP. It was also facing a new wave of consumer storage devices from better-known brands like Dell, HP, Netgear, and Seagate.
