International Business Machines Corp., the world's second-largest software company, said Friday that it plans to introduce a program that automatically backs up documents on laptops to guard against viruses, file corruption and theft.

The software, which will go on sale Sept. 6 for $35 per laptop or $995 for each server, continuously saves changes and sends copies of documents to a remote server or memory card, said Mike Nelson, IBM's director of Internet technology and strategy.

The programs will help Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM tap demand from companies seeking to reduce or eliminate damage from data losses. More than 30 percent of data lost is the result of human error, and 2,000 laptops are lost or stolen every day, IBM said. Rivals for similar automatic archiving software include Microsoft Corp.'s Data Protection Manager and Veritas Software Corp.'s Panther.

"A lot of our customers were losing millions of dollars a year in productivity," Nelson said, citing data losses from malfunctions and viruses. "We know there is demand."

Nelson declined to give IBM's financial targets for its Continuous Data Protection for Files product.

Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/238265_virussoftware27.html