AmeriVault the Latest Online Servicer to Be Swallowed

PHNS, a Texas-based IT and business process service provider specializing in the health care industry, on May 13 said it will acquire privately held AmeriVault, a respected provider of remote online data backup, off-site recovery, e-mail archiving and data life-cycle services.

PHNS provides IT services for hospitals, other health care providers and businesses. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

AmeriVault, based in Waltham, Mass., claims to have pioneered disk-based online backup in 1998. The company was founded on the premise that tape solutions were faulty and inefficient and put businesses at risk. Both of those allegations are open to debate.

There’s no question that AmeriVault offers highly respected services. The Station took a close look at how the company transformed the IT structure of the National Football League’s Baltimore Ravens in January 2007.

AmeriVault will operate as a PHNS subsidiary together with PHNS’ Network Technology Group subsidiary, which also provides electronic data protection services as well as advanced data center IT services. AmeriVault President Bud Stoddard will continue as president, and AmeriVault’s management and employees will remain in their current positions.

AmeriVault and NTG will service more than 1,270 customers throughout the United States.

The online storage business continues to expand very quickly. This is just the latest in a series of acquisitions of online backup/storage/data recovery specialists by other entities, such as Mozy/MozyPro by EMC and Arsenal and FilesX by IBM. New online services have been rolled out in recent months by Webroot Software and Iron Mountain. Check eWEEK for the stories on all those companies.