ITworld’s story EMC, “Lenovo Offers Unlimited SMB Backup Service” sounds like a great deal for Lenovo laptop buyers until you get out a calculator. Turns out the deal will cost Lenovo users an extra $24.30 per year. Don’t you feel Lenovo’s and EMC’s love for you? Or is that for your money?
Buy a Lenovo SL laptop, be a small business, and you get this special “deal.” It could be that the story is just worded oddly and some facts aren’t clear, but to me, it appears this new deal costs more than regular MozyHome service. For one laptop per year, Lenovo or some other brand, MozyHome charges $54.90 for unlimited backup storage. That’s a good deal, and sticks with the normal range of about $5 per month all their competitors offer as well. Carbonite is their best-known competitor, but there are plenty of online backup services today.
Do the deal with Lenovo and EMC, the huge data storage company that bought Mozy last year, and you get to pay $79.20 per year. Don’t you feel special, forking over an extra $24.30 per year for unlimited storage over the price paid by MozyHome users?
It could be the new deal is a new flat price for unlimited storage on MozyPro, which charges $3.95 per month plus another 50 cents per gigabyte stored. If so, that could be a good deal for some users with lots of data to backup. Buyers with only a few gigabytes of backup needs will pay less for the regular MozyPro service, however.
Is this a sucker deal from Lenovo and EMC/Mozy, or just a badly explained new program? I can’t tell, but I can tell you Lenovo isn’t excited enough to announce this on their Web site. If they don’t care, why should we?
Technology Is Broken 
The Mozy-powered Lenovo online backup service – http://www.lenovo.com/online_data_backup/us/en/ – is aimed at small business professionals. It offers more support options than our MozyHome consumer offering, and is priced accordingly. The program, which was implemented when Lenovo announced the service in June – http://www.lenovo.com/news/us/en/2008/07/ThinkPad_SL.html – is well-suited to the support needs of small businesses who need to protect vital information.
Devin Knighton
Mozy Inc, an EMC Company
My response to devin:
Thanks for responding to my post on 9/4/08. Can I ask a few more questions for clarification?
What MozyPro features are included?
Why is it a better deal?
Do customers contact Lenovo or EMC or Mozy for support?
What percentage of Lenovo laptop users have bought into the program?
James
MozyHome is built for the consumer to back up personal photos, music and pictures. The EULA states it is only to be used for home use. Support options include e-mail and live chat.
MozyPro is built for the entire small to medium size business to manage the backups of their employees. The service includes a web-based administrative console, faster upload options than MozyHome and 24/7 phone support.
The Lenovo Online Backup service is built for the small business individual. It does NOT include the MozyPro web-based administrative console, but it does provide faster upload speeds and does include 24/7 phone support. This first level of support is being provided by Lenovo, and escalations are worked together with the EMC Mozy team to resolution.
The percentage of Lenovo notebook users that have bought into the program has not been publicly disclosed yet.