LaCie, a well-known vendor of external storage devices, has announced a merger with Caleido AG, the creators of the innovative online storage service, Wuala. The merger will allow the two companies to offer better storage services to customers.

Wuala is an online storage technology which allows its users to securely store, back up, and access files from anywhere and to share files easily with family, friends, and co-workers. Wuala is based on a revolutionary technology that was researched for the most part at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich). Users start with 1 GB of storage but can get as much as they want, either by trading idle disk space or by buying additional storage. All files are encrypted on the user's computer and the user chooses who gets access to which folder.

"Users will gain online storage while trading disk space; that way, they will securely protect their valuable data. They can access it from anywhere and easily share files with selected peers. As privacy tends to be a major issue when talking about digital life and data management, everything is encrypted and a robust rights management system protects files from unauthorized access. We will also bring this technology to enterprises and professional customers, who will soon take advantage of our services with both cloud and data center-based storage,” said Dominik Grolimund, co-creator of Wuala,

LaCie has plans to implement this first real “cloud storage” technology into its ranges of storage devices, offering a powerful and combined solution for storage--local storage on devices for fast access, and secured remote storage on the cloud, for easy sharing and complete data versatility.

"For 20 years, LaCie massively promoted hard drive technologies; today, as a leader on storage market, we will be first mover in next leading technologies: flash-based storage, and cloud storage. With this merger, LaCie will morph from a pure hardware manufacturer to a solution provider. These new technologies will be amazing for our customers and will enhance their experience," Philippe Spruch claimed.

Tags: LaCie, Wuala