Yosemite extends back up reach with FileKeeper buy

Midmarket-focused back up software specialist Yosemite extended its reach into the continuous data protection (CDP) space today with the acquisition of client-based back up specialist FileKeeper.

Yosemite said the deal would add FileKeeper's desktop and laptop automated back up software suite to its existing server-based back up management technology.

"Previously, Yosemite Back Up has protected the server environment, but now we've gone from the core to the edge of the business and can protect the laptop and desktop as well," said David Spate, vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Yosemite. "We feel protecting the edge of the enterprise is increasingly important to SMBs as more and more people are working remotely, and they tend to be senior executives with a lot of valuable data on them – there is evidence that at the moment a lot of that data is not being backed up."

Yosemite said that FileKeeper's suite would be rebranded as Yosemite FileKeeper and would be sold either as an integrated package with Yosemite's server suite or as a separate product.
Spate said that the approach would allow firms with a rival server back up technology to still use FileKeeper. However, he added that the suite would only cost $30 a seat for existing Yosemite customers, compared to $45 a seat for non-Yosemite customers.

Yosemite said that the FileKeeper suite would provide users with CDP capabilities that would ensure their files are always backed up. "CDP means that every time you save the file it is protected," said Spate. "If you are not online it is backed up locally in a cache and then as soon as you connect to the corporate network it will automatically send over the back up."

He added that only changes to the original file are sent to the back up version, ensuring that the software has little impact on the network and providing users with the ability to recover files that have since been written over.