LaCie merges with start-up

LaCie, a global storage company, is merging with Caleido, the Swiss creator of an online storage service called Wuala, reports cnet.

The move is a sign that LaCie intends entering the cloud storage service market.

Unlike the established LaCie, which was founded in France in 1989, Wuala is still a relatively new start-up and before the merger, the company's personnel included just 11 people, including two part-timers.

Symantec has officially rolled out its entry into the consumer online storage market with the introduction of its new Norton Online Backup product, according to ChannelWeb.

Norton Online Backup allows the backing up and securing of files such as digital photos, financial documents and e-mails from up to five PCs in a household to an online site that can be accessed through a Web browser, says Jeff Kyle, group product manager for consumer products at Symantec.

That is a primary difference from many other online storage technologies which require the user to use the same PC for backing up and accessing online files, Kyle says.

With a purchase of Sun Microsystems, IBM would eliminate its biggest competitor in the high-end tape storage systems market, gain middleware to help manage increasingly complex storage networks, and possibly get a leg-up on new innovations in solid-state disk technology, reports ComputerWorld.

Sun bought StorageTek, a leader in enterprise-class tape storage systems, in 2005 and IBM has long been Sun's chief rival in the high-end segment of that marketplace.

If it purchased Sun, IBM would bolster its storage customer base and eliminate competition, but such a move would also create significant storage product overlap.