RSSSymantec acquires 'cloud' storage company, charges buckets
By Tim Conneally | Published June 11, 2008, 3:07 PM
Originally signing a deal in February of this year, Symantec has completed its acquisition of online backup and storage service SwapDrive and related properties for a reported $125 million.
Online backup service Swapdrive is now labeled with a prominent Symantec logo and states "Now part of Symantec!" along with SwapDrive affiliates (and former acquisition targets themselves) backup.com and whalemail.com.
According to Symantec, its Norton brand will integrate the newly-acquired online backup service into "a comprehensive solution to help secure and manage all of [their customers'] digital information, across all of their devices."
SwapDrive and Backup.com currently offer service packages to individuals and small- to mid-sized businesses on a month-to-month or annual basis. Features of the personal service with Backup include: automatic online, offsite, secure backups with "one touch" setup, web-based file access and restore, 256-bit AES encryption of all data, redundant secure data vaults, Delta-Block incremental backups, and file recovery that can take place online or via a CD/DVD sent by mail.
The aspect of these services that has already been harshly criticized is the accompanying price tag. Through Backup.com, a 50 GB backup package costs $449.50 annually for each individual. Small businesses can expect to pay upwards of $2,500 for a 300 GB backup package. With SwapDrive, the prices are even steeper: For the single user, $500 annually buys a mere 2 GB of online storage; multi-user/business accounts pay $2,800 yearly for only 10 GB.
Why pay for backing up files. When you can even encrypt your data (SSL) or share your data with others for free: http://skydrive.live.com It's definitely the best online backing up service out there
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|Skydrive is for kids. These offers are to back up the valuable data of men who don't compromise.
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|My goodness...we need someone to give some negative scores in here. Where's that no soliciting sign at...
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|$450 for 50 GB is a barely okay price if it's a quality service. $500 for 2 GB on the other hand...
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|It is certainly a good news to the online storage and online backup business.
While I tend not to believe they have $13 million in profit, the amount of revenue is already very impressive. This makes a lot of other small companies feel shy. In this business, most companies are money-losing: just think about some companies offering 2GB to 50GB free storage, or charging only $50/year for unlimited storage... while the storage price is going down, operating a backup service is not the same as using some raw cheap hard disks. We are not sure how the free / cheap service providers can survive without a buyout by some big old industry giant. From that point of view, SwapDrive has been doing really great in business.
DriveHQ.com is another independently-operated major Online Storage and Online Backup service provider.
Like SwapDrive, DriveHQ has Online Storage and Sharing service based on the DriveHQ.com website, FTP and DriveHQ FileManager client software; and we also have business-class Online Backup service using DriveHQ Online Backup enterprise edition.
Unlike many other companies, DriveHQ is not funded by VCs. We have spent many years developing top-notch products and technologies. We make money by offering top-quality products and services to our customers and creating value for them. We offer customized services to small and big companies. Our service has powered from big telecom service providers to small accounting firms, etc. While we look forward to having some good luck, our business focus has always been to create value for our customers and stay profitable. At end of the day, we believe if online storage and online backup is really important for customers, they will pay for it at a good price.
John
http://www.drivehq.com
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|On the subject of file backup, sharing and storage ...
Online backup is becoming common these days. It is estimated that 70-75% of all PC's will be connected to online backup services with in the next decade.
Thousands of online backup companies exist, from one guy operating in his apartment to fortune 500 companies.
Choosing the best online backup company will be very confusing and difficult. One website I find very helpful in making a decision to pick an online backup company is:
http://www.BackupReview.info
This site lists more than 400 online backup companies in its directory and ranks the top 25 on a monthly basis.
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|Especially since we can't actually see what the hell they're doing with the data / where it's housed.
For all we know it can be a company run by a 15 year old in the non-air conditioned garage on a PII w/ MMX
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|How much?
They've got to be joking.
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|I don't care how secure a company can claim their online backup service is, I wouldn't trust them with important/sensitive data at all. And at the prices listed in the article, are you kidding!?
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