NatWest launches data back-up service

NEWS NatWest plans to offer corporate customers a data backup service that can be accessed over the Internet. The high-street bank has teamed up with data warehousing specialist NetStore and will target medium to large businesses that want to back up data from a single PC or laptop. Kevin Brown, senior executive of business services at NatWest Corporate Banking Services, pointed out: "Of our customers with between £1m and £10m annual turnover, a large number have only a few PCs on which mission critical data is stored. They don't have a server and they don't have a network." However, remote data backup is already a highly competitive market, and NatWest is going to be up against computer giants like IBM and Hewlett Packard (HP). But Brown argued that data backup is a natural extension of the kind of services it has been providing for years - looking after people's valuables - and now the valuables are in the form of data. And Stephen Bean, marketing director at business continuity company Guardian IT, welcomed the move saying it would stimulate an increase in business. "This is an area of the market where there is a low level of awareness and we would like further competition to raise that. NatWest, with its branding, is certainly likely to do that." However, Bean added: "Because we are purely focused on business continuity we can therefore provide a better service and a one-stop-shop for all data recovery and backup services." Mark Raphael, programme director at the Meta Group, agreed it would be better to opt for a company where data recovery is its core focus. However, he added that the medium-sized business market could be highly lucrative - as these are companies that, until now, have seen off site data backup as important but not urgent. Dat@Bank will cost £15 a month for an unlimited amount of data.