IBM Brings CDP Home

Continuous data protection (CDP), originally developed to guarantee the highest level of backup and restore reliability for critical enterprise data, is now a retail technology for homes and small businesses.

IBM says it is making IBM Continuous Data Protection for Files available through online retailers such as Circuit City, CompUSA, and Staples through a distribution agreement with Digital River. IBM's software costs $35 per laptop or desktop PC.

When IBM launched CDP for Files last August, its target audience was laptop users in large corporations. (See IBM Hops CDP Bus.) But Chris Stakutis, CTO for IBM's CDP, says Big Blue has come to see it as a high-volume home application that combines security and backup. Stakutis envisions the Digital River deal making IBM's CDP a companion to antivirus as a method of securing data on home PCs.

IBM anticipates individuals and small businesses using the CDP package to back up data to online servers through a broadband service provider, or to a server or USB drive in the home or office.

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— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch