CenturyLink buys DataGardens to augment disaster recovery offering

US telco and cloud provider CenturyLink is acquiring DataGardens, a Canadian disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) firm, for an undisclosed sum.

DataGardens, founded in 2007 and based in Alberta, Canada, developed a close relationship with CenturyLink earlier this year when the two developed a dedicated version of SafeHaven, DataGardens’ flagship disaster recovery solution, for CenturyLink’s virtualised and bare metal cloud. DataGardens also offers dedicated disaster recovery solutions for other private cloud and public cloud platforms.

The DRaaS platform has been pitched as a midmarket solution for companies that traditionally haven’t gone down the disaster recovery route due to prohibitive cost or complexity.

CenturyLink said the move will allow it to offer customers a seamless way to mirror physical or virtual machines in the cloud, and it plans to fully integrate the DataGardens toolset into its cloud portfolio.

“With DataGardens, CenturyLink acquires a mature platform and impressive set of technologists and leaders. The product offers multiple deployment options, “protection groups” that ensure that a pool of servers stay consistent, DR planning options, and many other capabilities that demonstrate a thoughtful design and practical technology strategy,” the company explained in a statement discussing the acquisition.

The move comes as the DRaaS market continues to accelerate, with many major players like Microsoft, EMC, Google and IBM bolstering their DR strategies this year. According to MarketsandMarkets the global DRaaS and business continuity market will grow from $640.8m in 2013 to $5.77bn by 2018, representing a CAGR of 55.2 per cent.