Unilever contracts with Iron Mountain to protect distributed corporate data

~ rolls-out Connected Backup/PC solution globally ~

June 18, 2006 – In order to secure corporate data held on laptop computers worldwide, Unilever has selected the Connected® Backup/PC solution from Iron Mountain Digital, the technology arm of Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM).

Unilever will roll out the PC data protection and recovery solution initially to more than 30,000 laptop users across the US, Latin America and Europe.

Connected Backup/PC virtually eliminates the risk of PC data loss by automatically backing up desktop and laptop computers to a central location. It works in the background, allowing users to go about their normal tasks and making the backup process nearly transparent to the user.

Once the initial set up process has been completed, subsequent backups, which only include incremental changes to data, can be completed in around five minutes.

Prior to selecting Connected Backup/PC, Unilever relied on laptop users to back up their own data using a number of different solutions such as Zip drives and CDs. As a result, data wasn’t always backed up on a regular basis and the company had no control of the risks associated with data loss.

"One of the biggest challenges in protecting corporate data held by our laptop community was the fact that we couldn’t rely on users to undertake backups on a regular basis," explained Nigel Orchard, vice-president Global Solutions at Unilever. "We needed a solution that would bring data protection back into the realm of the IT department and reduce the risk of corporate data loss to the business."

"Feedback from users about Connected Backup/PC has been overwhelmingly positive," he continued. "The solution works consistently well and enables users to recover lost files themselves, speeding up the whole data recovery process in the event of a loss."

"Laptop users typically hold a significant amount of important corporate information locally on their PCs," said Nick Cater, general manager for Northern Europe at Iron Mountain Digital. "Being able to automatically, quickly, securely and efficiently protect this information, and ensure it is easily accessible in the event of data loss, should be an important element of any organisation’s business continuity strategy."

The company has already rolled out the PC backup solution to 15,000 users, with implementation expected to finish later this year.

Following the initial success of the deployment, Unilever is now looking at how Connected Backup/PC could be deployed to employees in Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East.