• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Seagate Buys EVault, Moves Into Storage Services

    January 8, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Disk and tape storage maker Seagate Technology wants to expand into online backup services, and that is why the company has acquired EVault, one of the pioneers in the fast-growing market for online backups, for $185 million in cash.

    Seagate is one of the dominant suppliers of disk drives into the enterprise, and is co-developer with IBM and Hewlett-Packard of the LTO tape format that is taking over the tape archiving market in a steady, methodical manner. But for many customers, making off-site backups is becoming as important as having onsite archives, and that is why online data vaulting is becoming popular. And the advent of cheap Internet bandwidth as well as fat, fast, and inexpensive disk drives and tape cartridges behind those electronic vaults means that it is now practical to offer such services.

    EVault was founded in 1997, and while the privately held company does not provide financial results, in its fiscal 2006 it has said that its sales grew by 44 percent to somewhere in the middle $30 million range; customer count has grown by nearly as much, with over 8,500 customers worldwide signing up either directly or indirectly, through reseller partners, for its online backup services. As the calendar year closed, EVault’s sales were north of $10 million a quarter, and it was bringing several million dollars to the bottom line. Even with EVault’s fast growth, Seagate has paid a pretty hefty premium for EVault based on these numbers, but being able to supply the key infrastructure behind online backups–the disk drives–at cost will give Seagate a clear advantage over other online backup providers as well as a means of wringing more profits out of its acquisition over the long term.

    EVault has 250 employees, and these workers as well as the EVault products will be rolled into the Seagate Services group. Seagate executives cited data from analyst reports during the acquisition announcement, which was made in late December, that suggested there were 74 million small- and medium-size businesses worldwide, and that data backup and recovery was one of their biggest challenges.

    In September 2005, Seagate bought Mirra, a company with 35 employees that created a storage appliance called the Personal Server that allowed people to access that storage from anywhere on the Internet. A cynic might call this a Web-based file server, and wonder what the big deal was, but the idea behind the Personal Server is that it would connect to a home PC or small office network and provide secure access to personal content, such as documents, photos, or music files.

    Then, in April 2006, Seagate acquired ActionFront Data Recovery Labs, which provides remote data recovery services for disk storage. Seagate had partnered with ActionFront to launch a service based on ActionFront’s products called Seagate Data Recovery Services in April 2005. ActionFront has 45 employees and runs recovery centers in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

    With ActionFront and EVault, Seagate can offer disk drives, onside tape archives, online archives, and online data recovery to customers–and do so across a full range of operating systems, including Windows, Unix, Linux, and i5/OS.

    Seagate, which went public in 2003 for the second time after being taken private during the dot-com bust, says that it expects the acquisition to be finalized by April 2007. The company brings in roughly $10 billion a year in sales and has a market capitalization of nearly $15 billion as we go to press. The company’s profits have shrunk substantially in recent quarters, so Wall Street is not exactly pleased that Seagate is shelling out $185 million for EVault, but the company’s share price is trading near its all-time high as the year opens, so the Street isn’t that angry.

    Time will tell how Seagate can convert EVault into serious money. But if anyone can, Seagate probably can. In fact, it is surprising that EMC, IBM, or HP didn’t beat Seagate to the acquisition punch on this one.

    RELATED STORIES

    Online Backups Business Treating EVault Well

    EVault Offers Business Continuity Service to SMBs

    EVault Throttles Down on iSeries Online Backups

    EVault’s Online Backup and Recovery Option Adds New Features

    EVault Brings Online Backups to the iSeries



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 16, Number 1 -- January 8, 2007

    Sponsored by
    ARCAD Software

    New Podcast Dedicated To IBM i DevOps!

    The topic of this IBM i DevOps TechTalk is “Moving to Git.” It features Jeff Tickner, Ray Bernardi, and Alan Ashley as they discuss what is Git and how to best use Git with the IBM i. Listen in for tips on:

    • Key Git Advantages
    • Git Considerations for a successful implementation
    • Working with branches and automated merges
    • Getting started and ARCAD’s Centralized approach

    Listen NOW

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    In Memorium: Christian Scott Ward Magic Adapts iBOLT for J.D. Edwards

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 16 Issue: 1

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • Reader Feedback on Saving System i
    • What Happened to the iSociety?
    • IBM’s System i Priorities for 2007
    • IDC Expects App Server Shipments to Grow Faster Than Sales
    • Arrow Buys Agilysys’ IT Distribution Business for $485 Million
    • Seagate Buys EVault, Moves Into Storage Services
    • Uncle Sam Pushes Energy Star Ratings for Servers
    • HP Projects Over $100 Billion in Sales in Fiscal 2008
    • As I See It: Questioning Retirement
    • Reader Feedback on Saving System i

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Unattended IBM i Operations Continue Upward Climb
    • VS Code Is The Full Stack IDE For IBM i
    • Domino Runs on IBM i 7.5, But HCL Still Working on Power10
    • Four Hundred Monitor, March 6
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 11
    • You Ought To Be Committed
    • Thoroughly Modern: What You Need to Know About IBM i Security
    • Spring Brings Events To IBM i Community, And More
    • As I See It: AI-AI-O
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 10

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2023 IT Jungle