EVault Hooks Up with Fujitsu for DR Clouds

January 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

EVault and Fujitsu are teaming up in a strategic partnership that will see Fujitsu launch a series of cloud-based backup and disaster recovery (DR) solutions based on EVault’s technology.

EVault is a major provider of online backup and cloud-based DR solutions. More than 38,000 organizations use EVault’s technology, either as direct customers of EVault or as customers of EVault’s partners. The company, which is a subsidiary of publicly traded disk giant Seagate Technology, doesn’t break out a specific revenue figure, but it figures to be a pretty healthy slice of Seagate’s software and services business.

Now you can count Fujitsu as one of EVault’s biggest partners. The $4.5 billion server maker plans to use EVault’s software to implement cloud-based DR services to its customers. The vendors refused to release details of the partnership or specifics of Fujitsu’s plans, except to say that, over the coming months, Fujitsu will launch a series of hybrid cloud backup services.

EVault provides automated backup of multiple platforms, including IBM i, Windows, Unix, and Linux. Depending on which package they select, customers can choose to have their backups (and a copy of the backup) stored on their own secondary systems; on dedicated EVault appliances; on a service provider’s system, or cloud; or on EVault’s system, or cloud.

With the recent launch of EVault Release 7, the company gave customers the option of keeping two copies of their primary backup, instead of just one copy of their backup. This greatly expands the options available to customer in planning and implementing their hybrid cloud backup strategies, and will undoubtedly factor into whatever specific solutions Fujitsu eventually rolls out.

Cameron McNaught, senior vice president cloud and strategic solutions at Fujitsu, offered this assessment of the need for cloud DR services: “Our clients recognize that cloud-based services can offer significant improvements in agility and cost-savings, but they also require flexibility in adopting cloud services so they can meet their individual needs. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work, which is why a hybrid approach to backup services is so important.”