EDS And Connected Partner To Protect PC DataEDS And Connected Partner To Protect PC Data

What business data is most at risk? Despite all the warnings and threats of the past several years, the most easily lost data sits on a PC user's hard drive. That's because few users actually take the time to back up the data on those disks.

Systems integrator and technology-services vendor EDS protects and backs up a lot of data for businesses. But it didn't have an automated way to extent its protection to data on a PC's hard drive. EDS said Monday that it will use technology from Connected Corp. on any project involving backing up data on PCs and mobile computers.

The Connected products involved include Delta Block and SendOnce. Delta Block only backs up blocks of data when changes are made to a file, preserving network resources by limiting the amount of information that needs to be transmitted. SendOnce is designed to keep multiple copies of a document from clogging up any single hard drive. The product automatically directs one copy of a file to the user archive, and all others are directed to a pool from which pointers service other copies of a document.

An industry analyst thinks Connected competes pretty well with a system from Veritas Software Corp., which includes a NetBackup product requiring IT administrators for installation, a storage array, and ongoing management from IT administrators. Says Steve Kenniston at Enterprise Storage Group, "With Connected, the vendor ships to IT, IT ships agents to users, and then Connected allows file-based recovery and automated healing of the [operating system] back to a point in time."