Cloud storage industry predictions for the coming year have been released by Drobo. The company’s interactions with thousands of customers, analysts and industry luminaries have been the basis for these predictions. Award-winning data storage products are manufactured by Drobo for businesses and professionals.

In a release, Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Drobo, said, "The pace of change in the storage industry is going to accelerate in 2012. Cloud strategies are evolving rapidly, solid-state media will have its day, and Big Data technologies will find their way to ‘Small Data’ customers. Any vendor with an old school product line is going to learn some new lessons the hard way in 2012."

The end of current cloud storage has been predicted by Drobo. A hybrid approach will become more popular than pure cloud adoption for both home users and small-medium businesses or SMBs. Public and private cloud architectures will be tightly integrated by the hybrid approach with modern on-premise storage systems. At least 50 percent of data will be stored on-site for a minimum of the next three years by 96 percents of SMBs surveyed recently by Drobo. Cloud performance, security and reliability concerns were the main factors for storing data on-site.

Big Data is being eclipsed by "Small Data" in importance. Only the largest of companies and data hoarders find Big Data relevant. According to Drobo, the "Small Data" opportunity is expected to explode even though Big Data will continue as a top issue in 2012.

As enterprise storage features hit the SMB and home user market, consumerization of IT will continue. Personal and small business storage is expected to be the focus in 2012. Home and small business offices will see inclusion of innovative technologies like automated data protection, advanced thin provisioning, and powerful data-tiering with solid-state drives in 2012.

Advanced technologies and unprecedented ease-of-use to more and more businesses will be brought about with the continuation of the "Drobo Invasion" in 2012. Technological breakthroughs and an unrivaled combination of automation, advanced features and affordability are featured by the Drobo B1200i.