EMC, Lenovo offer SMB backup service

Unlimited storage on offer for users at smaller businesses. By Stephen Lawson

Lenovo and EMC on have announced an effort to free small businesses from the hassles of data backup by offering a no-limits storage service for Lenovo's SL series laptops based on EMC's Mozy backup product.

In the first such deal for the Mozy division, buyers of the small-business SL laptops will be able to sign up for a special hosted service for backing up an unlimited amount of data. With the regular Mozy Pro service, subscribers pay per gigabyte and per user.

The Lenovo Online Data Backup offering with unlimited storage is available in English in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore. By year's end, Lenovo aims to offer it in more countries and in six other languages. In the US, the service is intially available at US$79.20 (NZ$115). Pricing will rise to US$99 before the end of the year, and the service will be expanded to other countries and offered in other languages.

Data protection has become a more critical concern with growing documentation requirements and increasing reliance on IT, even by small companies. Mozy's services let users back up the data on their PCs without having to buy and manage storage capacity. Mozy has its roots in backup services for consumers but is trying to expand its reach to businesses. It started offering Mozy Pro last year and was acquired by EMC in October. Of Mozy's approximately 850,000 subscribers, only about 23,000 are businesses.

With Mozy, users can have backups run without closing their files or shutting down applications, according to the company. They can also set how much of their internet bandwidth the backup service takes up while it's working.

With the introduction of the Lenovo-branded service, Mozy is also upgrading its system for privately managed encryption to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) from the Blowfish technology that it has previously used, says Devin Knighton, a Mozy spokesman. The stronger encryption is also available to other Mozy users.

In addition to the unlimited service, buyers of the Lenovo laptops can get a service with a 50GB ceiling for US$48.99 per year for a limited time, with a regular price of US$69. They can also try out Lenovo Online Data Backup with a free three-month trial that has a 5GB limit.

Mozy has also opened its first data center outside the US, in Dublin. The new centre will help businesses in Europe meet European Union data-privacy laws that require information to be stored within the EU, and it should increase international use of Mozy, Knighton says. Today, only about 25% of Mozy users are outside the US, he said.

The six additional languages set for later this year are French, German, Italian, Japanese, Universal Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, and more will come next year, according to Knighton. Eventually, the service will be available worldwide, Knighton says.

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

Tags managementemclenovo online data backup

Show Comments
[]