Backup Veteran Asigra Keeps Calm as Competitors Crowd the Cloud

Two decades before such buzzwords as “cloud computing” and “software as a service” entered the lexicon, a small Toronto software maker called Asigra was helping companies back up their data to remote sites over telephone lines.

Now the growth of cloud computing -- using software and storing data over the Internet rather than on a company’s own computers -- and particularly online backup have propelled demand for Asigra’s software. The same trend means the 100-employee company, which had close to $50 million in revenue in 2010, faces new competition from rivals large and small.