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Connected and Bellwether Trends Survey Shows Demand for PC Data Protection and Email Archiving Solutions

Results Underscore the Value of Software that Helps Organizations Balance Data Protection Needs of Compliance Officers with the Storage and Cost Efficiency Needs of Every IT Department

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. & NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 2004-- Connected(TM) Corporation, the leading provider of automated data protection, archiving and recovery solutions for distributed data, and professional research service firm Bellwether Trends today announced key findings of a survey exploring the prevalent trends associated with compliance, data protection and email archiving across the enterprise.
The online survey, which polled more than 500 business and IT professionals spanning various industries, revealed an urgent market need for automated PC data protection and archiving solutions which take the burden of data back-up and protection away from the end-user. Further revealed was the idea that many enterprises today are not yet archiving their email despite the newfound attention placed on the pervasive business use of email, including regulations from government bodies and industry watchdogs.

"The results of the survey indicate the strategic value of an automated storage software solution that helps customers protect and centrally manage data from PCs, Windows servers and email systems, while eliminating costs and burdens associated with capturing and recovering highly distributed data," said William Wagner, Principle of BellWether Trends. "The survey results also revealed strong and immediate demand for email archiving technologies that help companies meet compliance requirements without placing more strain on their storage budgets and overworked IT department."

SURVEY RESULTS

Need for Automated PC Data Protection Solutions - More than 67 percent of respondents indicated that they rely on the user to protect the data on employee desktops and laptops. This is a surprising result, since industry research has shown that by merely relying on end-users to manually back up data on servers, companies make themselves vulnerable to large-scale data-loss disasters that can place strain on the business. In fact, industry analyst IDC has reported that up to 60 percent of a company's critical information is stored unprotected on individual PCs. This finding indicates the importance of PC data protection and back-up solutions, like Connected DataProtector/PC(TM), that automatically protect, archive and recover all data, from the server to the edge a company's network, thereby ensuring the highest levels of business continuity.

Compliance Initiatives - Despite recent compliance regulations, 26 percent of respondents reported that their email messages are not archived. As a result, these organizations are putting themselves at considerable financial and legal risk if they are suddenly called upon to produce electronic records in the event of an audit or litigation. This feedback demonstrates significant market opportunity for Connected's recently launched ArchiveStore/EM(TM) software, which is a quick-to-deploy, cost effective solution, designed to automatically and efficiently archive and recover email records. With a combination of powerful data reduction technology, comprehensive encryption, audit trails and policy-based management, ArchiveStore/EM offers substantial benefits to both IT administrators and end-users, giving an organization much-needed relief from the costs and pressures of managing email records for legal discovery and compliance.

Reducing Infrastructure Costs - More than 74 percent of survey respondents indicated that achieving cost savings across the enterprise is their company's most important strategic business requirement. However, when asked if this initiative was being met adequately, less than half of the respondents felt that it was. Part of the problem is the challenge organizations have with reducing the strain on storage budgets. Looking at some of the drivers - far-flung remote offices, increased mobile workers and a regulatory need to account for more and more email - many companies feel compelled to purchase more storage and incur all of the costs associated with administering and managing those resources. As a result, new storage capacity is often quickly filled, requiring yet more servers and related storage, and creating a vicious and expensive cycle. Connected's patented data reduction technology helps companies manage the data explosion and meet the rigors of legal discovery and regulatory compliance, without sending storage requirements through the roof. Unlike other data protection solutions, which actually increase the amount of data an enterprise needs to back up, Connected DataProtector/PC reduces this data load, and helps companies dramatically cut costs.

About Bellwether Trends

Bellwether Trends is a professional research services firm focused on providing clients with a better understanding of their market and their customers to enable growth. Clients armed with this intelligence are able to continuously strengthen their competitive position. Bellwether's full service capabilities offer qualitative and quantitative global research programs that provide important marketplace trends and insights. The company supports its client roster of Fortune 1000 companies as well as SMBs, with Web, telephone, and postal mail research initiatives and offers a range of deliverables based on clients' specific needs--from high-level strategic insight and recommendations to simple data collection and presentation. Bellwether's industry expertise spans various sectors including retail, consumer goods, technology, pharmaceutical and healthcare, with proficiencies in both B2B and B2C environments. For more information, visit www.bellwethertrends.com or call 1-203-855-3206.

About Connected Corporation

Connected Corporation is the leading provider of storage software for automated protection, archiving and recovery of distributed data. The company's powerful, yet easy-to-use solutions help customers protect and centrally manage data from PCs, Windows servers and email systems, while eliminating costs and burdens associated with capturing and recovering highly distributed data. Customers range from mid-size businesses to more than 600 of the world's largest corporations, including Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, EDS, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, SAP, Schlumberger and Toyota. The company's solutions are offered as a subscription service or as licensed software. Connected is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, with multiple U.S. and international offices. For more information, visit www.connected.com or call 1-800-353-3078.

Connected, Connected DataProtector/PC, Connected DataProtector/SV, Connected ArchiveStore/EM, Delta Block and SendOnce are trademarks or registered trademarks of Connected Corporation. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Contacts


Connected Corporation
Wayne St. Amand, 508-808-7605
wstamand@connected.com
or
Greenough Communications
Lesley Ogrodnick, 617-275-6510
logrodnick@greenoughcom.com

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