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Symantec backs out of Backup Exec.cloud

Shuts down unloved cloud storage service

Symantec's resellers have reportedly been given notice to stop providing annual subscriptions to Backup Exec.cloud by 6 January.

Backup Exec.cloud lets small and medium businesses store backups in a Symantec remote vault (the cloud) or on-site and in the cloud.

Customers have been told they can use the service until one year after that date – 6 Jan 2015 – but then it closes down.

This reminds us of the Nirvanix cloud closure although this is much more measured.

Symantec has a relatively new CEO, Steve Bennett, and he is running a much tighter ship as he tries to get the $7bn/year software behemoth back into high growth and rising profitability.

Steve Bennett

Steve "Cloud-killer" Bennett

Steve "Cloud-killer" Bennett has cut jobs and restructured the company. The last quarter was challenging, with the sales force transitioning from generalists to information management or security specialists.

A Symantec Backup Exec.cloud FAQ that El Reg has seen said:

Customers want features such as synch and share and mobile access. Backup Exec.cloud was not designed with these features in mind. As a result, Symantec has decided to discontinue Backup Exec.cloud in order to focus on more productive and feature-rich cloud-based applications which include this type of functionality. ... Symantec will continue to invest in its core backup and recovery offerings, including on-premise Symantec Backup Exec and NetBackup software, as well as innovative cloud-based storage, sharing and synchronization platforms.

A statement sent to us from a Symantec said:

As we align with our new offering strategy and efforts to streamline our product range to provide fewer, more integrated solutions for our customers, Symantec has made the decision to retire Backup Exec.cloud. Existing customers will have use of the service until the end of their annual service period. We are firmly committed to doing everything we can to help our partners and customers successfully navigate this process.

Symantec will continue to invest in its core backup and recovery offerings, including on-premise Symantec Backup Exec and NetBackup software and appliances, as well as innovative cloud-based storage, sharing and synchronization platforms.

The company offered a Mozy-like consumer cloud backup service in 2009. That's long gone now.

Symantec has two other SMB cloud products: Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition 2013 - protection against viruses and malware - and its Enterprise Vault.cloud service providing cloud-based information archiving. There must be doubt now over the latter's future.

The spokesperson said: "As a whole Symantec remains committed to helping our customers leverage the benefits of cloud computing. We will continue to invest in and offer cloud solutions that make sense given our customer needs and business priorities, including Enterprise Vault.cloud, Symantec Endpoint Protection.cloud and Norton Zone."

Our thinking here at El Reg off-the-cuff-comment consultancy is that Symantec will have to buy in technology as it will take far too long for it to design and code its own tech.

We've asked Symantec for comment and will update the story if there is a substantive response. ®

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