The product is based on technology the company acquired with SwapDrive Inc. in June for US$124 million. A Symantec spokeswoman would not provide any additional detail other than saying that the service will be a “stand alone, cloud-based, online back-up offering.”
Symantec already offers 2GB of online storage for free with its Norton 360 security suite; additional allotments of 5GB, 10GB and 25GB per year can be purchased for $29.99, $49.99 and $69.99, respectively.
Symantec joins EMC on the consumer cloud storage front. EMC acquired Mozy in 2007 and released its first software-as-a-service storage application in January 2008.