PrintPalm Desert data storage firm Spare Backup Inc. (Pink: SPBU) announced Feb. 27 it will provide online data backup services for a technical support firm's customers.
The agreement between Spare Backup and DialAGeek calls for Spare Backup to supply one free gigabyte of online storage to each new DialAGeek customer that purchases a DialAGeek contract. If the customer's storage requirements exceed one gigabyte, the customer will be automatically enrolled in a monthly subscription. That program includes online storage up to 50 gigabytes, a Spare Backup release said.
DialAGeek is a 24-hour computer technical support company based in Rockville, Md. It has customers throughout the United States, Germany, Japan and Australia.
DialAGeek takes computer service calls from around the world, co-founder Mark Levin said. "We can fix the computer over the phone. We take over customers' computers. As long as they {customers} have an Internet connection, DialAGeek can fix the problem with the computer," Levin said. He declined to disclose the number of customers the company has.
Spare Backup anticipates earning monthly revenue from DialAGeek through subscription sales. The company declined to reveal details of the revenue-sharing agreement.
Spare Backup provides automated online data storage backup services. The company's software selects and sends copies of customers' computer files to data center servers. New leader to raise funds
Tim Gerrity, founder of a biomedical company and former director of a Georgetown research center, is taking the reins of a technology transfer program.
Gerrity begins his duties April 1 as director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization at California State University, San Bernardino.
Gerrity founded and led Noventus Medical in Worcester Mass., a company that provides resources for commercializing medical technologies. His resume includes serving as executive director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at Georgetown Univesity School of Medicine. While at the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs, he managed $100 million in research programs.
Current director Stu Gordon will retire after heading the program since 2003, Communications Manager Greg Zerovnik said.
Over the past two weeks Gerrity has met with leaders at Cal State, San Bernardino and at the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology in San Diego.
"He has been familiarizing himself with our clients and processes here and getting himself up to speed," Zerovnik said.
Gerrity's duties include raising funds to supplement federal grants from the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology.
The federal program funds aid to entrepreneurs who pass a screening process. The Cal State office is in its second year of a two-year, $4.6 million CCAT contract. The center in San Diego administers federal funding for the CCAT program at Cal State San Bernardino.
In December the Cal State technology transfer program announced seven winners of CCAT funds who collectively took home $485,000 in grants for commercialization of biometric and robotic inventions.
Winners included three inland firms:
CornerTurn in Corona, developing "BOTDROPS leave-behind sensors;" GEM Power LLC in Redlands, for a universal battery charger for biometric sensing equipment; and Embedded Computer Products in Wildomar, which is creating an alternative to computer pattern recognition and information retrieval.
