The company's smallest customer vaults 5GB of data, the company's largest, more than 20TB of data.
Because the cost of Digitiliti is based on the amount of data being stored at the Fortress Storage Center, the removal of common data and programs, and the compression of that data make a lot of sense.
BitLeap, founded in June 2004, makes a Linux-based appliance that is installed in customer locations, where it backs up data on a scheduled basis over IP to two BitLeap locations in Carlisle, Pa. The company's LeapServ Backup Server has local storage and can server as a NASA device for storing data.
The LeapServ service and appliance looks a lot like that of Digitiliti -- both are operating system-agnostic, both back up data locally and to two locations, and both have an appliance- or software-only service approach. Also like Digitiliti, common applications between customers are not backed up if they are unique and haven't been patched. A typical company will pay US$50 to US$100 a month for BitLeap's service.
Even EMC is looking at the online data protection and vaulting space, said Joe Tucci, EMC's CEO, chairman and president, in a press gathering at the RSA Conference this week.
"With EMC buying Avamar , it's only a matter of time before they offer the service directly," says StorageIO's Schulz. "Too, with Seagate buying EVault [in December 2006] and entering the managed-backup market along with others like HP, this is not coincidence, however, far from the signal that the overall storage service provider market for one and all is returning."