America Online is beta testing an online backup system for its subscribers, PC World first reported Friday. AOL members may save duplicates of their personal files, pictures and documents to redundant AOL datacenters as insurance against computing catastrophe.

AOL tells BetaNews that backup data is encrypted and password protected to deny others unauthorized access. The backups are recurring and performed automatically.

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Microsoft is entering the disk-based backup and recovery market. The software giant has revealed an open beta of Microsoft Data Protection Server (DPS), a continuous disk-based backup and recovery solution. The software promises rapid, reliable and efficient recovery in minutes -- not hours -- for the Windows 2003 Server System customers.

Redmond has stepped up to the plate with a cadre of no less than 20 industry storage partners which include backup and recovery independent software vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufactures (OEMs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) lined up in its bullpen.

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