The Next Chapter With StorCentric

With the recent announcement of the acquisition of Drobo and Nexsan by StorCentric (read the full announcement here), many of our readers are wondering what the future holds for Drobo products.  Mihir Shah, formerly the CEO of Drobo and now CEO of StorCentric just released his annual CEO letter outlining additional details on StorCentric’s strategy to provide customer-centric storage solutions for complex workflows and we have the full text of that letter below.

We have had a busy year with development, and I am excited for the team’s growing advancements in the storage industry. As you may have heard, Drobo and Nexsan are now a part of StorCentric, a storage focused and customer centric parent company. I would like to explain why we formed StorCentric and our vision for the future.

We developed StorCentric to further innovate on-premise solutions, beyond the cloud. On several occasions, people have come to us requesting a solution for replacing, replicating or backing up their cloud storage due to ownership concerns.

Customers are getting wary of their data being held hostage by public cloud providers and the excessive network-related charges to recall it. I am not saying that everything is moving back to on-premise storage, but I do believe that we will live in a hybrid world. This will be a combination of on-premise and cloud storage; in which users will have control of their data, not third parties. This vision motivated us to form StorCentric.

With the creation of StorCentric, Drobo and Nexsan will remain independent from a branding standpoint. Customers and partners will not see any disruption with their day-to-day interaction with both companies. We want to reiterate that Drobo and Nexsan are here to stay and StorCentric will allow both brands to grow in new and innovative ways.

Drobo Continues to Grow

Over the year, Drobo has encountered achievements and challenges. We launched a worldclass ambassador program, which includes some of the best artists from the photography, video and design industry. We know it is world class because our competitors created similar communities; and imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

The demand for our products continues to be strong, however we have encountered supply chain and certification obstacles that has delayed product shipments. We are working hard to resolve these issues, and are excited to elevate the storage industry over the coming quarters with new products customers have been asking for. These new innovations are a direct response of our customer centric focus.

Introducing Nexsan

Did you know NASA is a Nexsan customer? Neither did I. What is even better is that NASA is also a Drobo customer. We have seen this mutual customer base more and more as we started working together. This validates our assumption that customers need a full portfolio of storage solutions to control and manage their data.

Nexsan is able to satisfy larger customers who demand performance and high availability. With over 20 years in business, Nexsan has over 40,000 units installed, in more than 60 countries. I have been told that some customers have their earliest Nexsan products still running! That is amazing.

The advantage of bringing these two companies together, is that there is little overlap in terms of products. We strongly believe there are opportunities for a business to benefit from utilizing both product lines. For example, in a large organization with branch offices, you can place Nexsan devices at HQ and Drobo devices at the branch offices.

We will continue to support and invest in Nexsan technology. This innovation will provide IT professionals with high-performing, high value storage suited for their needs. We will also implement technical and business improvements, in order to optimize the experience for customers who have both Nexsan and Drobo products.

StorCentric’s Simple Vision

My vision for StorCentric is simple. We are focused on providing the tools and resources to help our customers solve their workflow challenges. We have laid out an aggressive growth strategy to achieve this vision with mergers and acquisitions being a key component. We plan on looking at software, hardware and service companies; with a storage focus to build out the StorCentric platform.

I want to thank our team, customers, partners and investors for all of their support and contribution. I am excited for the future of StorCentric with the Drobo and Nexsan brands, and look forward to updating you on our progress in the months to come.

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