EMC World: EMC Acquires Cloud Sync Firm Syncplicity

EMC has agreed to acquire cloud-based sync and file sharing management provider Syncplicity, although the company was fairly quiet on the deal at EMC World yesterday, when it instead focused on its “megalaunch” of 42 products.

EMC feels the need to expand its offerings in the enterprise sync and share market, even though it has capabilities in this area. Subsidiary VMware released the beta of its own cloud-based file sharing product earlier this month in the form of Project Octopus.

The storage giant will be integrating Syncplicity into its Information Intelligence Group and it looks as if it will be tied into EMC’s Documentum line up of content management products.

Head in the clouds

“It’s our core belief that productivity and security are not mutually exclusive. In acquiring Syncplicity, we validate this concept by uniting enterprise ‘sync and share’ capabilities for the cloud with governance and rigor that is synonymous with Documentum,” said Rick Devenuti, president of the Information Intelligence Group.

“As cloud, social and mobile dominate the way work gets done, our customers require more than simple containers for managing and sharing content. With Syncplicity, we will deliver best-in-class solutions for true extended enterprise collaboration.”

Syncplicity will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary, claiming it will “develop amazing new solutions that combine the best we each have to offer.”

“Together we will deliver enterprise-grade sync, sharing, mobility and collaboration solutions that a CIO trusts and users love,” a blog from Syncplicity executives read.

“For all the hype in our space, we’ve yet to see the Fortune 500 standardise on early cloud file sync, share and collaboration solutions across their firms as the new way of doing business. There is vast interest and demand, with a lot of experimentation, but real enterprise-wide adoption is still in its earliest stages because having a secure, enterprise grade solution matters.”

It will be interesting to see how EMC and VMware compete in the sync space. The latter’s Project Octopus uses a mix of technology from open source email and calendar groupware software vendor Zimbra and online backup provider Mozy, with some added code developed by the two companies. VMware is going to roll the offering into Horizon to start, “providing a centralised policy and entitlement engine that will broker user access to applications, virtual desktops and data resources.”

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