Carbonite Expands SMB Market Reach With EVault Acquisition

Cloud data protection vendor Carbonite has acquired EVault, the business continuity and disaster recovery division of Seagate Technology for $14 million in cash from US-based data storage vendor Seagate Technology. Carbonite, which known as a provider of cloud-based data protection services to consumers and small businesses, announced Wednesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire most of EVault’s business operations.

Under the terms of agreement, Carbonite will get the EVault Cloud Backup and Recovery software-only solution for server backups, the EVault Backup and Recovery Appliance, and the EVault Cloud Resiliency Services.

The deal will allow Carbonite to add several of EVault’s solutions to its own portfolio as the company looks to expand its lineup of data protection and recovery solutions for the highly lucrative SMB market. This deal is also expected to boost Carbonite’s current market status in the SMB market, which the company estimates to be worth $13 billion in the U.S. and more than $40 billion worldwide.

Mohamad Ali, President and CEO Carbonite, said in a statement: “With this acquisition, Carbonite is taking a big step forward in meeting the data protection and business continuity needs of the entire SMB market from home offices to medium-sized businesses”, and also added this: “EVault’s proven technology… enables us to round out our portfolio and immediately provide the features and functionality larger businesses require to support their complex environments.”

Founded in 2005 by CEO David Friend and CTO Jeff Flowers, Carbonite is an online backup service that offers personal backup, plus backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service for small businesses. Carbonite was the first such service in the market to offer unlimited backup space for a fixed price.      

For Carbonite, this deal is the most effective way to continue moving away from its consumer roots to become a major provider of data protection services to small and medium-sized businesses. The EVault acquisition will bring sophistication and expertise to the table that would take Carbonite years to develop on its own. EVault is currently offers a one-hour SLA on failovers, and it’s considered as the most sophisticated SLA in the industry. 

Boston-based Carbonite has a history of significant acquisitions. In October, it acquired intellectual property and hired engineers from Rebit, providing Carbonite access to patents it used in its cloud storage offerings based on previous OEM agreements. 

In addition to acquisitions, Carbonite has also been a target of acquisition. In May, it shut down a two-year takeover attempt by J2 Global, a Los Angeles-based cloud services, and unveiled effective plans to stay independent.

Hardware giant Seagate Technology acquired EVault in 2007, making EVault the center of the company’s cloud-based data protection solution. In 2008, Seagate moved EVault and other data protection services into a new company called i365, but restored the EVault name in 2011. This year Seagate rebranded it and named it the Hybrid Cloud Data Protection solution. 

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