Symantec Expands To Consumer Online Storage With SwapDrive Buy

Symantec has grudgingly confirmed that it has acquired consumer online storage provider SwapDrive in a strategy that in some aspects mirrors that of arch-rival EMC.

Symantec confirmed the acquisition after reports in several on-line publications said the Cupertino, Calif.-based storage and security vendor paid $123 million to acquire SwapDrive, a Washington, DC-based provider of on-line storage capacity.

Symantec said en an e-mailed statement that the acquisition closed on June 6, but did not discuss terms.

According to the statement, "Symantec has acquired SwapDrive, a privately-held online storage company to strengthen the services offerings in the Norton consumer portfolio and to help consumers manage data across their devices. This was a small, targeted acquisition and is a very natural move for us because of our close two-year OEM relationship and existing product partnership on Norton 360."

A Symantec spokesperson said the acquisition is purely a consumer online backup move.

For businesses, Symantec offers the Symantec Protection Network, which it unveiled about a year ago as its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.

The Symantec Protection Network online data backup and recovery service is aimed at helping small and midsize businesses get access to online data protection, with one fee to cover the service, maintenance, and support. The service leverages legacy Veritas backup and recovery solutions and legacy Symantec services management technology, and it relies on some redundant data centers that Symantec has set up for customers to use for online backups.

EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., last October acquired Berkeley Data Systems, the American Fork, Utah-based developer of the technology behind the Mozy online backup business.

EMC has since unveiled plans to expand its Mozy platform to be the base for its cloud computing initiative

Other major storage vendors have acquired online storage service providers as part of a move into this market, including Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif. and Seagate Technology, of Scotts Valley, Calif.