Microsoft buys InMage to boost Azure Site Recovery

Microsoft will integrate InMage's technology into the cloud-based backup and recovery service

IDG News Service - Microsoft plans to enhance its Azure cloud backup and recovery by integrating technology from InMage, a business continuity vendor it just acquired.

InMage's software continuously captures changes in data in real time to help enterprises immediately recover data to local systems or fail over to remote sites. Microsoft plans to integrate the company's flagship Scout product, which is available both on appliances and as a cloud platform, with the Azure Site Recovery service.

Azure Site Recovery, formerly called Hyper-V Recovery Manager, wasintroduced last month and is designed as a cloud-based alternative to enterprises building and maintaining their own remote sites for disaster recovery.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, will help to make Azure the best disaster recovery site for all types of IT environments, including Windows and Linux, physical and virtualized, and Hyper-V and VMware, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Takeshi Numoto wrote in a blog post. In the future, customers will buy Scout through Azure Site Recovery, but existing InMage customers can continue to use the company's products, Numoto wrote. Microsoft will continue to work with InMage's current service-provider partners.

Privately held InMage is about 10 years old and is based in San Jose, California. Its technology is used in disaster recovery services offered by partners including Hewlett-Packard and Sungard.