IBM to target small firms market

IBM is scaling down some of its software for new markets

IBM, the US computer giant, is expected to unveil software that will continuously back up information on the PCs of small and medium-sized firms.

In a sign it is serious about winning more business from firms with fewer than 1,000 staff, it has adapted its corporate Tivoli product for them.

Smaller firms are often poorly protected in the event of a computer crash, virus attack or other disaster.

Tivoli will also be able to back up work on laptops from staff on the move.

The enterprise market is not seeing the high growth...we are seeing in the small and medium-sized market Dianne Macadam, analyst at DataMobility

The IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files software will copy data within seconds of it being entered or changed on a PC or a more powerful server computer, IBM said.

Growth market

Many rival crash recovery products only back up information several times a day.

According to Reuters, the software will be announced on Friday and go on sale on September 16, costing $35 (£19.41) per laptop or desktop PC and $995 per server processor - servers often have two to four processors.

"The enterprise market is not seeing the high growth rate that we are seeing in the small and medium-sized market," said Dianne Macadam, an industry analyst at US-based DataMobility Group.

"Small and medium-sized businesses are contending with a 'data avalanche', vulnerable to computer viruses or crashes," Ron Riffe, IBM's director of storage software strategy said.

In July, IBM reported a 6.6% gain in second-quarter profits - topping market estimates - but sales dipped 4% to $22.30bn after it sold its personal computer division to China's Lenovo.