Last year IDC mentioned “Fueled by Tremendous Growth in Data Generation, Online Backup Services Market Is Emerging and Poised to Grow Fourfold by 2011”.

Well to me it looks like these estimates are being outpaced quickly, but that’s another story. The reason this topic came to my mind is because they had mentioned another important factor in their study:

“Year-over-year growth will slow beginning in 2010, as services practices begin to standardize, pricing competition has an impact, the supplier community consolidates, and in some cases online backup becomes a built-in feature in other online/Web-based services offerings.”

I doubt this. Millions of newer computers keep coming and with the death of tape drive now inevitable, the growth of online backup may continue for another couple of years more than predicted by IDC.

And yes, it may eventually become part of other services such as anti-virus or a bundled suite from your ISP.