EMC Adds Online Backup to Iomega Drives

Here is yet another proof point in the inevitability of on-demand computing. The venerable and almost hidebound EMC is making it easier for customers to combine on-premises and on-demand storage as they see fit.

EMC, which hasn't acquired a new company for a couple of months now after scooping up 38 companies since 2001, has a definite method to its technology-swallowing madness: It takes the new IP it owns and spreads it as far throughout the corporation as it can.

The latest example of this strategy, announced July 17, is the connection of online backup provider Mozy, which EMC acquired in October 2007, with small business data protection provider Iomega, which it added to its roster in April 2008.

In the past, EMC has transplanted the technologies of acquired companies such as VMware (virtualization), RSA (security) and Avamar Technologies (data deduplication) in other areas throughout its vast product line.

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The Iomega division claimed an industry first in integrating local and remote backup in a single small and midsize business product offering. New Iomega external hard drives are now rolling out with a free downloadable software bundle that includes both EMC's Retrospect Express backup and recovery software and the Mozy online backup service, giving users more options for ways to store and protect files.

This is not the first time that an online backup service has shipped with a hard drive, however. Carbonite, an independent online data backup provider, on June 25 became the first company to have its service bundled and automatically activated with the sale of a personal computer. Every Packard Bell computer sold in Europe now is shipped with Carbonite Online Backup preloaded and running.

The new EMC offering, available later in July, marks the first time that EMC-owned brands Iomega, Retrospect and Mozy have united to provide an integrated hardware and software package for nearline and online backup. The two software products share setup information and send backups to either nearline storage (an external hard drive or network drive) or online storage (the Internet), or both.

"Computer users now have a seamless backup system for local backup of every file, as well as backup to the cloud for files that warrant another copy. This bundled solution provides the versatility of any time, anywhere access," said Jonathan Huberman, president of the Consumer and Small Business Products Group at EMC and former president of Iomega.

The Iomega external hard drives now are shipping with a free choice among three versions of the Retrospect Express local backup software plus 2GB of MozyHome online backup, also at no cost. Unlimited MozyHome online backup storage costs an extra $4.95 per month, which is the standard price for the service.

The three Retrospect options available are Retrospect Express HD 2.5 for Windows, Retrospect Express 7.6 for Windows and Retrospect Express for Macintosh 6.1.

Iomega's USB-connected 2.5-inch portable hard drives range in capacity from 80GB to 320GB. The 3.5-inch desktop hard drives range in capacity from 500GB to 1.5TB. For more information, go here.