Atempo Swallows Storactive

Nine months after dipping its toe into continuous data protection (CDP) through an OEM deal, backup software vendor Atempo today dived into the pool by acquiring its partner Storactive.

For an undisclosed price, Atempo will pick up Storactives CDP products to bolster its backup software. Atempo already sells Storactive’s LiveBackup CDP for PCs and laptops as part of the OEM deal forged last July and will immediately add Storactive’s LiveServ for Exchange. (See Atempo Plays CDP Tune.)

Executives of both companies say they will work on integrating CDP into Atempo’s TimeNavigator software, and they expect to add CDP for SQL Server and other applications.

At least a few of Atempo and Storactive customers are looking for greater integration. Daemonn Brody, technical director at U.K.-based Internet service provider Mistral, says his company uses TimeNavigator to back up servers and LiveBackup for desktops and laptops. He sees CDP playing a bigger role in both areas.

"The ability to have a safe, recoverable store of the data in a secure location is a significant comfort to any user or manager in an office of any size, but particularly the enterprise," Brody says.Shawn Wilde, CIO of Global Positioning System (GPS) developer Trimble, says his company has workers in 20 countries and many use LiveBackup to protect data on laptops. He's hoping to see the product continue, with improvements. “LiveBackup has saved a lot of people in my company a lot of times,” Wilde says. “I’m interested in looking at Atempo’s products, but I see this as an opportunity to enhance both products.”

Storactive president Tony Bautista agrees -- though he's clearly focused on the CDP side of things. Besides integrating CDP into backup, he expects Atempo to continue with Storactive's plan of expanding CDP, as noted before. “One of the things we need to talk about in the new company is bringing out LiveServ for other applications,” he says.

Atempo is entering an already active market. Since the Atempo-Storactive OEM deal last year, other backup software vendors have added CDP. EMC launched RecoverPoint through an OEM deal with Mendocino Software, CommVault built CDP into its QiNetix product, IBM rolled out a CDP product for laptops, and Symantec added near-CDP for files into its Backup Exec product. (See EMC Pulls Forward With Backup, CommVault Upgrades QiNetix, IBM Hops CDP Bus, and Microsoft and Symantec Cut SMB Tape.)

Besides helping Atempo into this CDP fray, the deal will help expand its U.S. presence. It has about 20 employees in Palo Alto, Calif., with most of the other 160 employees in Europe. (See Atempo Adds Execs Con Brio and Atempo Asks America to Say Oui.)

Storactive, founded in 1998, has about 60 employees. According to Atempo global marketing VP Steve Terlizzi, most of Storactive’s sales, marketing, and engineering team will join Atempo. Storactive’s headquarters are in Marina Del Rey, Calif., with a development office in Moscow. Bautista will have an executive position at Atempo, while Storactive CEO Neil Ater will join Atempo’s board.Storactive began selling LiveBackup in 1999, added LiveServ in 2002, and expanded its CDP features for both early last year. (See Storactive Intros LiveBackup Express and Storactive Intros LiveServ for Exchange.)

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch

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