New Otium Partnership Brings Automated Data Protection to SMEs

Otium Software, the leading UK-based provider of affordable Storage Resource Management (SRM) software, today announced a new partnership with LaCie to offer SMEs ten-user licenses of Otium's data protection solution for desktops and laptops UtiliSync bundled with LaCie 500GB Ethernet Disk, which provides small workgroups with plug-and-play networked disk capacity. Otium's UtiliSync enables home and business users alike to easily and quickly set up and carry out automated replication of important data to USB keys, disk and NAS products. With the new bundle UtiliSync automatically copies data changes to the LaCie Ethernet Disk. The new bundle will initially be available through PC World Business (pcwb).

In today's storage market the SME space is one of the fastest-growing segments and yet most of the solutions built specifically for these users are still lacking the correct combination and balance of usability, features and price. Otium and LaCie's shared focus on the SME space and the companies' products features provided a great base for a joint solution aimed at this market.

'Whilst most companies back up their servers, very few have structured
solutions in place for protecting data stored on desktops and laptops.
Centralised PC back up solutions are often expensive and cumbersome to
manage, not a viable option for SMEs where ease of use is vital,'
Otium's Managing Director Andrew Martin explains. 'The combined solution
from Otium and LaCie meets all the performance and manageability
requirements while keeping the price affordable.'

'The mainstream response to the gap in the market for user-friendly automated data protection solutions aimed at SMEs to date has been to strip enterprise products of some features and lower the price but this approach does not work,' said John Ali, Storage Specialist at PCWB. 'This new bundle from LaCie and Otium fills this gap with the appropriate set of features, the correct level of usability and most importantly it does so at the right price point.'

George Leptos Managing Director at LaCie UK commented 'We welcome PCWB's initiative to bring Otium and LaCie's technologies together to offer small businesses a truly effective data protection solution."