New software to protect data

2005-08-26 12:05

Chris Reiter

New York - IBM on Friday unveiled a new product that allows computer users to continuously back up their data, protecting it from crashes or virus attacks.

The software, which goes by the long-winded title IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection For Files, will be available on September 16 and sell for $35 per laptop or desktop and $995 per server processor.

The software, which targets a growing segment of the $2.6 billion backup and archive software market, tracks real-time changes of a computer's data and saves records of these changes locally as well as on remote servers, offering more protection than traditional once-a-day backups.

"This is really a whole new world," said Ron Riffe, IBM's director of storage software strategy.

IBM said it will sell the software on a stand-alone basis to smaller companies and as an add-on to customers of its well-entrenched Tivoli Storage Manager product, which backs up and recovers data for corporate systems. The core market is the growing legion of remote workers.

Riffe said IBM is also in talks with internet service providers and others about bringing the technology to consumers.

Continuous backup technology, however, isn't entirely unique. Rivals such as Symantec Corp and a number of startups, have similar products on the market, said Anne MacFarland, an analyst with technology consultant The Clipper Group.

But IBM says these rival products don't provide the same type of real-time protection of IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection For Files and aren't as easy to use.

"It's really simple, which is important to the target market," said Riffe.

This simplicity, IBM's vast market presence, as well as the low price will encourage adoption, Clipper Group's MacFarland said.

The system will initially support only Windows, but will likely be expanded to Linux and other operating systems, Riffe said.

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