EMC Buys Syncplicity, Adds Mobile Sync, Share Over Cloud To ECM

Rick Devenuti, president of EMC's Information Intelligence Group, which includes the Documentum enterprise content management (ECM) business, unveiled the acquisition Monday at a keynote during the EMC World conference in Las Vegas.

The acquisition is aimed at filling a hole in EMC's enterprise content management business by helping businesses eliminate the conflict between protecting content and making it accessible to users.

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"We were good at protecting the content," Devenuti said. "But we ignored the end user."

EMC is no longer ignoring the end user. Syncplicity provides a cloud-based solution for secure file synchronization, mobility and collaboration that provides individuals, teams and businesses of all sizes seamless access to files regardless of what computer, mobile device or application they are using.

Karen White, CEO of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Syncplicity, said the industry has over 1 billion smart phones dealing with new applications that hit the market every day.

"You're gonna expect all your stuff to be ready whenever you are," White said. "And you are going to expect to be in contact with your colleagues, and with your ad hoc colleagues, anywhere and at any time."

Syncplicity was founded with that need in mind, White said. "But at the same time, we need to be aware of the compliance and governance companies need," she said.

With the acquisition and the eventual tying together of Syncplicity's mobile sync and share technology to EMC's enterprise content management technology, the barrier between user productivity and the need of businesses to control content has been broken, Devenuti said.

"We're very excited about this opportunity to break the barrier," he said.

EMC declined to unveil the terms of the acquisition.