Mozy plans to launch apps for Apple iOS, Android platforms

Computerworld - Popular online backup provider Mozy plans to notify customers of its MozyHome service tomorrow that it will to soon launch mobile applications for Apple iOS- and Android-based devices.

"We're sending a notification to our customers tomorrow just letting them know the mobile apps are coming very soon and [that Mozy is] registering people who want to be the first to be notified," said Dave Robinson, vice president of marketing.

The mobile apps will focus on providing users with easy access to any files backed up with the MozyHome service.

"The common use case is a sales guy who's traveling and has his laptop stolen. He'd be able to go into the Mozy app, pull up his files and send it to another computer," he said. "Or, you're at dinner with friends and you could share your vacation photos you backed up with Mozy and display them on your Android or iPhone."

Mozy is also going to solicit interested customers for a beta program for a new synchronization service that will let them store files on one computer, and allow them to be distributed to multiple mobile devices.

For example, family members could use an Apple iPhone or Android-based device to access the latest versions of files stored on an iMac desktop computer at home.

Users won't run the sync application on their mobile devices -- they'll run the Mozy mobile app from them. The sync service will run on a home computer, allowing access from either iOS or Android mobile platforms.

The beta program will probably last a couple of months, Robinson said. Mozy employees are currently testing the file synchronization service.

"For now, we're focused on the iOS and Android platforms because they seem to be most popular with the app development community," Robinson said.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian, or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed . His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

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