Yosemite Picks Up Laptop Backup

Yosemite Technologies today picked up tiny data protection firm FileKeeper, which sells near-Continuous Data Protection (CDP) software for laptops and desktops. (See Yosemite Acquires Laptop, Protection.)

Yosemite will maintain the FileKeeper Enterprise product, which performs frequent backups on Windows-based PCs. While it also works on desktops, Yosemite CEO George Symons sees the product being more popular for laptops, and a key part of Yosemite's strategy to focus on the SMB market rather than the enterprise. (See EMC's Symons Heads to Yosemite.) FileKeeper automatically backs up open files as they are saved to disk and performs automatic hourly backups of files that remain open, such as personal email folders and desktop databases.

Unlike true CDP, FileKeeper does not perform continuous backup that lets users restore lost data to the minute. FileKeeper users may need to go back to data backed up an hour ago if they need to restore.

FileKeeper is similar to IBM's CDP for Files, which is true CDP for laptops. (See IBM Brings CDP Home.) Microsoft's Data Protection Manager (DPM) works similarly to FileKeeper, but is aimed at server protection rather than PCs. (See Zi Signs Mobile Search Deal.)

Symons won't disclose the acquisition price, but he says buying Knoxville, Tenn.-based FileKeeper was a quick way to gain CDP technology and cheaper than developing it in-house. And he says it was the laptop protection that attracted Yosemite more than the CDP. "I talk about this more as laptop protection, and CDP is the technology that drives it," he says.Yosemite will sell the FileKeeper product as Yosemite FileKeeper, but Symons says it will eventually also be integrated into the company's core Yosemite Backup application for SMBs.

Yosemite FileKeeper costs $45 per laptop or desktop PC as a standalone application, and $30 per PC when purchased along with Yosemite Backup. IBM CDP for Files costs $35 per PC.

To help battle IBM, Symons is talking with Yosemite OEM partners about offering FileKeeper. Yosemite has OEM deals with Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Iomega, Quantum, and Tandberg.

Analyst Brad O'Neill of the Taneja Group says the deal shows two trends in disk-based backup: the inclusion of laptops, and the use of CDP or near-CDP as part of the overall backup picture.

"This is further proof that everybody is targeting the extension of data protection coverage all the way onto desktops and laptops as part of a coherent backup strategy," O'Neill says. "And it reinforces that continuous data approaches are indeed useful and differentiated versus schedule-based backup."It also shows in these storage acquisition-happy times, even a five-person company in the mountains of Tennessee will be found and bought if it has interesting technology. Symons says FileKeeper has 30 customers, and three of its employees will be retained by Yosemite.

Dave Raffo, News Editor, Byte and Switch